In January 1976, local historians from Karatus decided to start collecting materials. On December 30, 1986, the executive committee of the Karatus district approved decision No. 283 to open the Karatus Historical and Local History Museum on a voluntary basis and appointed the museum council.

As part of the regional project "Cultural Capital of Krasnoyarsk", a new concept for the museum was developed and implemented, presented in January 2020 and March 2021, titled "Karatus District, Border of the Empire". Now all exhibitions have a unified design and cover topics such as the coat of arms and flag of the district, the village of Karatuskoye, the ancient history of the district, the Kundusk petroglyphs, Old Believers in the Karatus district, Cossacks, the "gold rush" and its consequences, the district during the Great Patriotic War, as well as the history of the museum itself.

The museum houses 3,777 exhibits in its main collection, of which 682 are on display.