In 1972, the Northern Anthropological and Cultural Society was formed in Fort Smith with the purpose of promoting, building and maintaining a museum.

[citation needed] The outside gallery is home to a collection of agriculture equipment and machinery that was used in and around Fort Smith.

The last remaining natural migratory flock of whooping cranes in the world nest in and around Wood Buffalo National Park.

Unable to be released back into the wild, Canus (named after the joint CANadian/US effort) took up residence at Patuxent Wildlife Refuge in Maryland as the first participant in their new captive breeding program.

[citation needed] The museum also hosts an outdoor aboriginal cultural Centre that showcases Canada's first peoples' ways of traditional living before European contact occurred in the early 1800s.