The museum was initially conceived by Stan Reynolds, who had amassed a large collection of agricultural machinery, airplanes, and automobiles during the mid-20th century.

During the 1980s, Reynolds donated 850 artifacts to the government of Alberta for the purposes of showcasing these items in a public museum.

[12] The property is adjacent to Wetaskiwin Regional Airport, and is situated near the eastern portion of Alberta Highway 13 before it branches north.

[14] Historically themed interactive exhibits include a 1911 automobile assembly line, a 1920s grain elevator, a 1930s service station, and a 1950s drive-in theatre.

[14] Other facilities in the main museum building include a theatre, offices, a café, event venues, and a gift shop.

[15] The 10,219-square-metre-collections (110,000 sq ft) storage facility houses artifacts from the museum's collection which are not on exhibit in its main building nor at its aviation display hangar.

[18][19] As of April 2019, the museum's collection contained approximately 6,600 agricultural, industrial, and transportation artifacts.

[20] In addition to machinery, the museum's collection also includes a number of documents relating to mechanization in industry and transportation.

[20] Automobiles in the museum's collection include a Hupp-Yeats, a 1929 Duesenberg Phaeton Royale Model J, a 1933 Ford Fordor, and one of the two surviving 1934 Citroën P17 half-track used during the Bedaux expedition.

[27] The museum's resource centre contains the largest publicly accessible library of trade literature in North America, containing more than 70,000 items including service manuals, parts catalogues, technical leaflets, periodicals, and books.