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–Not graded
History · Point Baker

Point Baker’s post office opened in 1942

Below: maps from 1949 on and the census since 1940.

1942first post office
0on the National Register
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Quick answers

How Point Baker began

When was Point Baker founded?

1942

The Point Baker post office opened in 1942, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 29 in 19402020 census: 1284 years
Founding year: the first Point Baker post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Point Baker’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Point Baker are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 90 in 1980; 12 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Point Baker’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Point Baker’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Point Baker, census by census

010019401960198020002020Peak: 90

Peaked at 90 in 1980; 12 people lived here in 2020.

7 censuses, 1940–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Point Baker’s Wikipedia page.

The story

How Point Baker came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Point Baker.

Read it all →

In 1975, Point Baker and Port Protection made national news when Zieske v Butz, a landmark lawsuit against the US Forest Service brought by Pnt Baker residents Charles Zieske, Alan Stein, and Herb Zieske, was decided by Judge James von der Heydt, the Alaska Federal District court judge. The lawsuit was initiated by Alan Stein and the Point Baker Association which had about 30 fishermen members from the communities of Point Baker and Port Protection. On December 24, 1975, von der Hedyt issued an injunction against all clearcutting on the North end of the Prince of Wales island from Red Bay to Calder Bay. The lawsuit stopped planned clear cutting on 400,000 acres (1,600 km2) on the north end Island. Congress lifted the injunction when it passed the National Forest Management Act in 1976.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Point Baker, 1942 to 1980

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 20th century
  2. 1942Post officeThe Point Baker post office opens
  3. 1949On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 1980CensusPopulation peaks at 90
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Point Baker on the map, 1949 to 1995

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Point Baker. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Point Baker on the 1949 USGS mapPoint Baker on the 1953 USGS mapPoint Baker on the 1995 USGS map1949Petersburg B-5 sheet · 1:63,360

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Point Baker.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Port ProtectionIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Point Baker’s history

What year was Point Baker founded?

The Point Baker post office opened in 1942, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 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.