 It became a town in 1889 and then a city in 1898.On 30 October 1889, an American merchant ship, the "Cheseborough" wrecked off the prefecture's west coast near the village Shariki, many of the ship's crew were saved by the villagers.During a military exercise on 23 January 1902, 199 soldiers died after getting lost during a blizzard in the Hakkōda Mountains incident.