Karol London, of Whataroa, unveiled the proposal at the Haast-Otago road 50th anniversary at Haast last weekend.
Mrs London, whose husband Martin is the Whataroa GP, is forming a community trust to fundraise for and complete the museum in time for the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Haast-Paringa Road at Knights Point, in 2015.
Suggestions include sourcing parts of the original "Bill Blair D8 2U bulldozer" that made the extremely challenging overland trip.
Other elements include an audio-visual room, relief models of the road-building terrain, and historical survey information.
Mrs London said she got the museum idea after reading Jim Henderson's story "The Wonderful Bulldozer" in Mr Henderson's 1984 book Tales of the Coast.
Commonwealth Construction, of which Mr Blair was a director, had a contract to work Halfway Bluff.
Maurie Hartley, Ray Smith and Eddie Story were the drivers.
The machine, also known as Smith's Tractor, had come from Smith Brothers in the North Island.
It was considered the 48km overland trip would be easier and cheaper than stripping then shipping the machine to Jackson Bay and rebuilding it.
The planned 14-day trip took 38 days.
The drivers had done no reconnaissance, took no chainsaws, ran out of food and fuel and had to winch the machine up steep inclines.
The dozer arrived in such a state it was barely able to do any work.
The weary men had been feeding mosquitoes the whole while but were reported to have arrived in good spirits.
Hartley was said to have lost 12kg.
Mrs London said the story was worth telling in a museum setting and a reconstructed dozer would help attract visitors.
Mr Smith and Mr Hartley have since died.
Mr Story (90) lives at Reefton, and spoke to author Dave Grantham for his recently published book A Road Through The Pass, which devotes a chapter to the adventure.
"There are so many wonderful stories here.
If we can get this, I hope the community can later add galleries to tell other stories, for example of deer hunting," Mrs London said.
