Lava surged and surged again, in vast flows hundreds of feet thick. Eruptions spewed ash and lava. Magma pooled beneath the Earth.

Weathered over millions of years, the products of that fiery activity are sublime today. That volcanic chapter is visible from Alpine and Fort Davis to Balmorhea, in the landscapes of the Davis Mountains.

At the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center, a unique exhibit offers a key to this geologic history. But the exhibit, on the hill called Clayton's Overlook, named for CDRI donor Clayton Williams, has a broader purpose as well – to show how geology shapes the human experience.

Founded in 1974, the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, or CDRI, is one of the...