The museum is built up around a beautiful farmstead where the family of skipper Ellingsen lived from 1750 until the end of the nineteenth century. In the summer there is a café here and souvenirs can be purchased. Local photographers have made important contributions to the history of the district. A new exhibition of photography and photographic equipment is located on the first floor. The rest of the museum consists of some 20-odd buildings dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries.  These include a “cookhouse”, storehouse, barn, smithy and schoolhouse. You can enter these buildings to view the exhibits. The traditions of boat-building in Saltdal are widely recognised. The museum houses two Nordland-boats. The cabin from the well-known polar vessel, “Quest”, is also here. Sir Ernest Shackleton died while on a research voyage to the Antarctic in 1922 and his ship, the “Quest”, was sold and sailed to Rognan for refitting. The cabin was then taken ashore for good.