In places, the road was very steep and in the section between Magome-juku and the next station to the east, Tsumago-juku, travelers had to navigate an 800 meter mountain pass.

Per the 1843 "中山道宿村大概帳" (Nakasendō Shukuson Taigaichō) guidebook issued by the Inspector of Highways (道中奉行, Dōchu-būgyō), the town had a population of 717 people in 69 houses, including one honjin, one waki-honjin, and 18 hatago.

In the modern period, with the completion of the Chūō Main Line railway, it fell into obscurity and poverty; and many of its old buildings were destroyed by fires in 1895 and 1915.

The central feature of Magome is its restored row of houses along the former post road, which runs at a slope between the town's low and high ends.

[2] Magome was the birthplace and childhood home of noted author Shimazaki Tōson, who wrote about the Kiso region in his most famous novel, Before the Dawn, between 1929 and 1935.