The article reveals the statistical activities of the committees in Western Siberia and the Steppes in the second half of the XIX — early XX century in the field of cultural heritage preservation and exploration of the region through archaeological work. Being the only administrative- research centers, statistical committees performed a lot of “unnecessary” operations, thereby forming the whole direction in the study of the region. On the basis of the sources analyses, the main directions of archaeological activities of the statistical committees and regional statistical systems of the studied period include: preparation and participation in archaeological congresses; archaeological study of the provinces and regions with the help of questionnaires; inquires and instructions from the Moscow Archaeological Society, the Russian Geographical Society, Archaeological Commission and other scientific societies and institutions on the problems of archeology; participation in archaeological research and excavation; a desk study of ancient settlements, burial mounds and other archaeological sites of the edge; drawing of the archaeological maps of the local provinces; creating of the archaeological collections in order to create museums and activities to protect the monuments. While studying the archival materials and published sources, the author pays special attention to the forms of cooperation with the central statistical committees of scientific societies on the formation of archaeological information.