The museum in Raduzhny first opened its doors on March 28, 1989, at the House of Pioneers. Its creation was initiated by Gennady Rudolfovich Volkov.

The museum, originally named "Oil Land, My Destiny," showcased a small exhibition that included national clothing of the Khanty and Nenets, household items, as well as tools for hunting and fishing. Here, one could see materials about the activities of the fishing cooperative in the village of Varyogan in the 1940s-50s and photographs by N. Starovartovsky illustrating the life of the Khanty and Nenets. In 1991, the museum was transferred to the Children's Career Guidance Center at the "Neftyanik" Culture House and was located in a remodeled four-room apartment on the first floor of building No. 8 in the seventh microdistrict. The museum's collections were enriched by donations from city residents and trips to the village of Varyogan. The Ecological and Ethnographic Museum was officially registered on October 24, 2000, by a decree of the Raduzhny city administration.

Since November 1, 2000, the museum has operated as an independent institution. The section "Geology of Oil and Gas, Paleontology" presents information about the conditions for the formation of oil and gas fields in Western Siberia. It also features mammoth bones found in Raduzhny in 2003. The exhibition continues to tell the story of oil and gas development in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.