In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology has designated it as a "Special Natural Monument".

[3][4] In 1907 (Meiji 40), Okamoto found mineral crystals of Hokutolite, and after preliminary tests, it was found to have a high specific gravity and to contain lead (Pb), which was produced in an acidic hot spring environment, so it was temporarily called "anglesite" (PbSO4), a commonly known mineral.

Together with Professor Vernardsky, the Chairperson of the Russian Committee for Radium Mining Investigation, Professor Kotora Jimbo jointly named the newly discovered mineral Hokutolite (Hokuto is the Japanese name for Beitou, and lite means rock and mineral in English).

[9] Due to the lack of radiation sources, the composition of Hokutolite, Polonium (Po), was often used as a reference material for atomic nucleus experiments during the Japanese colonial rule, making Hokutolite of great significance in the history of physics in Taiwan.

On the evening of July 25, 1934 (Showa 9), the team of Bunsaku Arakatsu of the [10] Physics Chair of the Taipei Imperial University successfully completed an artificial impact experiment on atomic nuclei.

[13] In 1961, the former director of the Academia Sinica of the Republic of China, Yuan-Tseh Lee, wrote his master's thesis on "A Study of the Radioactivity of Beitou Stone" when he was a student at National Tsing Hua University, also with Hokutolite as a research topic.