The Finnish Heritage Agency has classified Kontiomäki railway station as a nationally significant built cultural environment.

[1] In September 1918 the decision to begin the planning of a railway line from Nurmes to Oulu and from Kajaani to Mieslahti was made.

[1] The wooden station building designed by architects Gunnar Aspelin and Jarl Ungern and representing Nordic Classicism with a gambrel roof was completed in the same year.

[1] A railway line from Kontiomäki to Vartius and further to Kostomuksha, Russia was built in 1974–1976, solely for freight traffic.

Passenger traffic towards Taivalkoski via the Kontiomäki–Ämmänsaari line ceased in 1982, although there was a short-term experiment with seasonal "ski trains" under the title Winter Rail done in 1988–1990.