Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Larsen Bay was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1984. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1952 on, and the census since 1940.
Larsen Bay first appears in the census in 1940. Another post office, Uyak (1900), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Larsen Bay’s history is told.
Peaked at 168 in 1980; 34 people lived here in 2020.
9 censuses, 1940–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Larsen Bay’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Larsen Bay.
Larsen Bay was named in honor of local hunter and sailor Peter Adolf Larsen, a Danish immigrant.
Larsen Bay first appeared on the 1940 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village. It formally incorporated as a city in 1974.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveBoxing match with spectators watching in background, Larsen Bay, Alaska, 1915
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveUntitled photo2 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Larsen Bay.
1952Kodiak C-6 sheet · 1:63,360U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Larsen Bay.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Larsen Bay’s page.
Retake this view · +15Larsen Bay’s post office has been open since 1950. Another post office, Uyak, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Larsen Bay post office opened in 1940, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1974.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
