The Nyagan City Local History Museum was established by the order of the head of the local government of Nyagan, E.I. Delov, on July 6, 1999. It was planned to open the museum in 2000, in honor of the city's 15th anniversary. The museum was created from scratch, without its own building, collections, or specialists.

Within a year, it was necessary to form the collections, while simultaneously starting the renovation of the former store building into a museum. Thanks to traditional methods of collecting exhibits, such as expeditions, yard visits, and appeals to residents, the task was successfully accomplished. By the time of the official opening, the museum's collections numbered over 5,000 exhibits.

The group 'Artifactum' led by Y.V. Kalmykov, working as part of the NPMO 'Volot', transformed the vacant space into a small work of art in just a few months.

In 2009, the 'Center for Applied Creativity and Crafts' was renamed to the 'Center for Indigenous Peoples of the North' and moved to a new modern building. Based on the decree of the head of the city administration, A.V. Ryzhenkov, dated December 24, 2008, the museum received a new name, the municipal autonomous institution of the municipal formation of the city of Nyagan 'Museum and Cultural Center.'