Hokutan Horonai coal mine

[1] In 1868, carpenter Kimura Kichitarō (木村 吉太郎) discovered coal in Horonai, Mikasa (三 笠).

[2] However, it took another 6 years before Chōjūrō Hayakawa a citizen of Sapporo, delivered the first coal to the colonization commission (開拓使, Kaitakushi).

[3] The local government took action, and the mining engineers Benjamin Smith Lyman and Takeaki Enomoto welded an investigation.

In November 1975, a gas explosion took 13 lives and caused an underground fire that had to be extinguished by pouring 4 billion liters of water into the mine.

The extinguishing and subsequent repairs dragged on for two years and left the mine with a debt of 120 billion yen and on the verge of bankruptcy.

As a final attempt, the parent company was in 1978 split into the departments of Horonai, Sorachi, Mayachi and Yubari.

[13] Again, on November 27, 1977, another deadly gas explosion with more than 15 victims occurred in Horonai, and its financial situation worsened.

[14] As a result, the local government had to buy up its properties, such as the mining community and its facilities, in order to finance its closure.