The museum was based on the collection mainly of minerals and archaeological finds gathered in the earlier twentieth century by Mining Commissioner Gideon Retief, which was once housed under imperfect conditions as the "Mining Commissioner's Museum" in the town.
[1] Following years of neglect, the toll house was restored and converted into a museum opened in Heritage Month, 2000.
The displays touch on mid-twentieth-century forced removals in Barkly West that were a consequence of the Group Areas Act under Apartheid.
A stone tablet bearing the names of noteworthy visitors to the nearby Canteen Kopje site and the Mining Commissioner's Museum in the 1940s includes the signature of the Abbé Henri Breuil.
[2] The 125th anniversary of the opening of the "Vaal River Bridge, West Barkly" - as it was originally named - was celebrated here on June 26, 2010, with readings from the Diamond Fields Advertiser, William Guybon Atherstone, Emil Holub, Sol Plaatje and Dan Jacobson.