The museum's collections include historic artifacts, photographs, indigenous arts, archival materials, and fine art documenting the region's past in twenty-four buildings including historic structures and contemporary galleries.

The museum was created in 1948 by Harold K. Hochschild[2] as an effort to protect the steam locomotive and two cars that had been abandoned on the Marion River Carry between Utowana and Raquette Lakes.

[1][2] In 1963-64 the museum sponsored the archaeological exploration of the Wiawaka Bateaux Site by Terry Crandall.

[3] The museum collection includes a number of large objects, including a Pullman railroad car, several guide boats and an Idem class racing sailboat, a steam locomotive, a one-room schoolhouse, the rustic "Sunset Cottage", the complete cabin of author and ecologist Anne LaBastille, and the Log Hotel, built in 1876 and original to the museum's site, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Other material includes: On July 1st, 2023, a permanent exhibition called Artists & Inspiration in the Wild opened inside the former Lynn Boillot Art Galleries.