Mikasa Geopark | Destinations | for Travel Trade & Press

Come on, let’s go! Time Travel 100 Million Years

Mikasa City is a town that flourished as a coal mining town, so it has several prominent coal mine headframes and other remains from the coal mining history.
Furthermore, Mikasa is famous for ammonites. Mikasa’s 100-million-year-old strata that formed at the bottom of an ancient ocean has been the source for large numbers of ammonites and other fossils. Mikasa Geopark protects and uses these regional“treasures”as tools to educate and tell a story about Mikasa’s history and unique geomorphology.

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Open-air Museum Area

In Mikasa you can see fossils from 100 million years ago, including ammonites. The discovery of these fossils started with the discovery of coal and is thanks to Mikasa’s vertical strata.

You can take a trip through time from 100 million years ago when ammonites were swimming in the oceans up to modern times when the city flourished as a coal mining town.

You can enjoy this geological slip through time, coal mine remains, fossils, nature, and more in a 1.2km walking course at the open-air museum.

Industrial Heritage

In the late 19^th century coal was discovered in Mikasa and this led to the establishment of numerous coal mines and was a driving force in the development of Hokkaido.

In order to transport this precious resource, the first railway in Hokkaido (and the first industrial railway in Japan), the Horonai Railway, was built from Mikasa to Otaru.

Today you can see many of these industrial heritage remains at Mikasa Geopark. Their roles have ended, but their remains tell a story. A story you can learn about through our tours and activities.