the children's museum of utah was founded in 1978 and opened its doors in 1983. for most of its history, tcmu was located in the former wasatch warm springs building two miles north of downtown salt lake city. the museum started with only eight exhibits. some of these original exhibits included the paleontology dig of a mammoth dinosaur bones, a western airline's 737 cockpit, the artificial heart demonstration, the frozen bubble box using dry ice, and the ksl news station for children. by 1998, tcmu had grown to 140 permanent exhibits and over of public space. that year, it had become evident that tcmu had reached the physical limits imposed by its current building, and the decision was made to relocate and expand to better serve the community. in 2002, a bond issue was approved by salt lake county voters to fund the relocation of tcmu to a new, larger building in the gateway district of salt lake city. ground was broken on the new museum on 22 september 2005. less than one year later, on 16 september 2006, tcmu opened to the public at its current location and officially became discovery gateway.