290 species of vertebrates are found in the territory of the park, including many with a taiga habitat, (red-backed mouse, sable, Siberian musk deer, hazel grouse and others), as well as some forest-steppe animals (Siberian roe deer, steppe polecat, long-tailed ground squirrel and others).

Also, there are species from The Red Book of Russia:[clarification needed] Visitors are able to get to the boundary of the park by city bus.

In 1735 the Pillars were seen by the members of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, including naturalists Johann Georg Gmelin and his assistant Stepan Krasheninnikov.

In 1870 and 1880s, a Krasnoyarsk teacher named Ivan Savenkov organized school trips to the "Pillars".

[7] The core of the area was declared a natural reserve (zapovednik) on June 30, 1925, by the Krasnoyarsk soviet in order to protect the picturesque Syenite Buttes and surrounding rocky landscape.

In 1947 a married couple (Yelena Krutovskaya and James Dulkeyt) set up a farm for wild animals injured by poachers.

In 2007 Stolby was submitted to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites,[9] but the inscription was deferred indefinitely.

On December 4, 2019, the legal status of the Stolby Nature Reserve was changed to that of a national park (IUCN category II).