The Mesa Southwest Museum will soon be known by a new name.
On Monday, the City Council approved a name change for the 30-year-old institution in a move that museum officials believe could attract as many as 25,000 extra visitors per year.
The council voted to change the name to the Arizona Museum of Natural History in the hope it will better reflect the fossil collections and artifacts on display.
The museum has more than 60,000 objects with anthropological, paleontologic or historical significance and is one of the pre-eminent natural history museums in Arizona.
