The museum was opened on November 30, 1979, as a museum of Komsomol glory on a voluntary basis. For a long time, it moved from one location to another, and discussions about its fate and possible reorganization took place. Only in January 1994 was the district historical and local lore museum opened. Until January 1, 2011, it was a branch of the municipal club system. Since 2011, the museum has received legal entity status. Currently, it is located in two rooms of the former school No. 38 and includes two branches in the villages of Mukhino and Suna.

The museum's exhibition covers peasant life, urban life of the 1950s-60s, railway transport, and the Great Patriotic War. There is a club for younger schoolchildren called "Vyatskaya Kopilka" operating at the museum.

Among the attractions, one can highlight the FD-2922 series steam locomotive in the station square, monuments of the Great Patriotic War, an archaeological site, the Gorodishchenskoe settlement, the village of Saltyki, the birthplace of the first Vyatka wrestler Grigory Ilyich Koshcheev, the Kosinskaya paper mill from 1735, the ruins of the Sokolovsky distillery, the preserved churches of the Zuevsky district, and the historical, memorial, and landscape museum-reserve of artists V.M. and A.M. Vasnetsov "Ryabovo."

The museum houses 5,000 items, of which the main fund consists of about 3,000. Among the exhibits are items of peasant life, a set of Udmurt costumes, exhibits on railway transport, a photo exhibition about Grigory Koshcheev, and a private collection of locomotive nameplates.