The history of the museum began in 1967, when, on the initiative of the history teacher Klavdiya Iosifovna Kruchinina, a room of military and labor glory was opened in the Uvat secondary school.
In 1989, the school organized the “Poisk” (Search) group, whose members, under the guidance of the history teacher Lyudmila Alexandrovna Telegina, began collecting exhibits for the museum, studying documents on the history of the Uvat district in the archives of Uvat, Tobolsk, Tyumen and Moscow.
On February 1, 2007, the Department of Local Lore at the Uvat Central District Library was established, based on the exhibits from the school museum. And on January 14, 2008, the regional museum of local lore called “Legends of the Gray Irtysh” was opened.
Currently, the museum houses 13 permanent exhibition areas that tell the history of the region from ancient times to the present day, as well as the nature and the people who lived on the territories of modern-day Uvat. The museum’s collection has over 8,000 items. The museum also has three exhibition halls and an open exhibition “From the Paleozoic to the Modern”. The museum’s staff holds regular master classes, local history conferences, various quizzes and educational events.