Begun in the 1960s with a single professor's personal collection of artifacts, the museum took up house in the Old Main building in 1984, first in the basement.

It moved upstairs to its present location, in the south turret 2,000-square-foot (190 m2), in 1992.

In 2010, university officials announced a plan to relocate the museum from its current room to its own building, those plans were eventually scrapped and the space in the Welcome Center on campus was reallocated.

It also serves as a training and research ground for the USU Department of Anthropology.

The museum is also home to the popular "Saturdays at the Museum", wherein free family-centered lectures and hands-on activities are held each Saturday throughout the year.