The Inta Local History Museum was founded in 1969. In 1971, it became a branch of the Komi Republican Historical and Local History Museum, and in 1992 it received the status of an independent institution. The initiator of its creation and the first director of the museum was historian L. N. Malofeevskaya.

Today, the museum includes exhibition and fund complexes, a structural unit called the "Museum of the History of Political Repressions," the Historical and Ethnographic Museum in the village of Petrun, and the Historical and Memorial Complex in the settlement of Abezi. The fund complex consists of several storage facilities, including a special storage, quarantine room, reserve storage, scientific archive, library with a reading room, lecture hall, and restoration workshop.

Among the rare exhibits of the archaeological collection are finds from the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, such as bronze pendants, a mirror, and rings discovered during expeditions in 2001 and 2003 near Lake Pozhem-ty. The paleontological collection, which contains materials on the paleo-fauna and paleo-flora of the Upper Paleozoic era, as well as partially from the Lower Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras, particularly interests visitors.

The largest collection of the museum reflects the history of the region's development. Personal archives of philosopher L. Karsavin, art historian N. Punin, screenwriters V. Frid and Yu. Dunskiy, scientist-metalurgist Feshchenko-Chopivskiy, and other notable figures attract attention. Valuable historical collections of old views of the city are presented by the collections of photographers Porotikova, Bludau, and Ivanov.

The museum also has a collection of items made from bone, fur, suede, and leather, as well as objects related to professional mining activities. In the visual arts collection, consisting of works by professional and amateur artists, notable pieces include paintings by Engels Kozlov, watercolors and graphics by Vitaly Trofimov, and works by artists imprisoned in the Gulag.

The Inta Local History Museum has seven exhibition halls, united in a single ring. Here, exhibits tell about the natural and climatic features of the region, the time and methods of its settlement, the culture and occupations of the local population from ancient times to the present, the socio-political changes in the region, and its tragic history related to the period of repressions. One of the exhibitions, "The City and Destinies," reveals the history of the city through the fates of significant individuals.

A special place in the exhibition is occupied by the story of the industrial development of the Inta coal deposit. This is a kind of museum within a museum, called the "Coal Museum." Here, documents, photographs, models of mining services and mechanisms, tools, special clothing, and equipment are presented, which help recreate the process of exploring coal reserves, constructing, and operating Inta mines. Various types of supports for mining workings were built to scale specifically for the museum.