This is a place where you can learn about the history, origins, and culture of 上川町. Admission was free. Photography is allowed. The building is quite impressive too. Because there is a bypass, the road leading down here is a little hard to identify, but the route is as shown on Google map. There are plenty of materials and exhibits, and it's nice to be able to enter for free. As you'd expect of 上川町, which includes 大雪山国立公園, there are exhibits about mountains, flora and fauna, and how 上川町 became the town it is today. Detailed history is available in 上川町史, so if you have time, why not pick it up and have a look?

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Admission is free, but you sign the guestbook when entering. It seems they don't get many visitors. Stone tools, pottery, old household items, farming equipment, and so on are on display. Since 大雪山国立公園 is in this town, the materials about it seem fairly extensive.

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Hello. I'm a train-riding enthusiast lol After taking the limited express オホーツク2号, I used the waiting time for the local train to 遠軽 to visit the museum. The exhibits mainly consist of objects showing people's lives from the settlement era through the Shōwa 50s. There are also specimens of flora and fauna from the 大雪山 mountain range. The air conditioning inside is pleasantly effective, making it comfortable to spend time here. Thank you to the museum staff for the courteous reception.

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A new building a little way from the town center. Perhaps its contents were inherited from the previous local history museum, as many items look old-fashioned, but I visited just before the lunch break (12-13時), so I didn't have time for a thorough look. I'd like to visit again. Admission is free.

There are approximately 7000 exhibits. Many are from the Meiji era, so I think the only people who might find them nostalgic are those old enough to receive a longevity award from the local government. Even someone visiting at 80 would have been born in 1945-1944, so whether they feel nostalgic depends on where they were born. But people in the old days took good care of things, so you may find an item that triggers some childhood memory. I was born in the Heisei era, so I felt no nostalgia at all, but I've visited museums all around Hokkaido. The reason to visit this one is that it's a valuable museum conveying the history of the mountainous region just as it was. If you look at the websites of municipalities in Hokkaido, regardless of size, most have some kind of historical collection or museum, but unless they cover an industry of the time that represents the area, they are much alike. When discussing this era, coal mines in Hokkaido tend to receive attention. Since Hokkaido has a shorter history than mainland Japan, much concerns coal and iron. But here, forests were cleared to use aboveground resources, while the underground resource was hot springs rather than coal, and that has continued to this day. The scenery still attracts people now, and in the past it also attracted cultural figures. For me, the oil painting of 大雪 was the best.