Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Norfork was built recently: 0.8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1993. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1966 on, and the census since 1920.
The Norfork post office opened in 1906, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, North Fork (1888) and Devero (1902), 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 Norfork’s history is told.
Norfork’s post office has been open since 1906. Two other post offices 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 country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Norfork yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Norfork is a city in Baxter County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, Norfork had a population of 465.
Its first post office opened in 1906. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 511 to 465 (-9%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
2013Wolf TWO
2013Wolf SIX
2013Wolf SEVEN
2013Wolf ONE
2013Wolf NINE
2013Wolf FOUR
2013Wolf FIVE
2013Wolf EIGHT
2012Aircraft fly over USS Enterprise during the ship's in…
2009Wolf Cemetery
2008FEMA - 34654 - Damaged building structure in Arkansas
2008FEMA - 34653 - Damaged and mitigated homes in Arkansas
2008FEMA - 34652 - FEMA PDA team in Arkansas
2008FEMA - 34651 - Wet household debris on the front lawn…
2008FEMA - 34650 - FEMA worker looks at debris in front o…The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Norfork.
1966Norfork sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Norfork.
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 Norfork’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 224 and 511 people in every census since 1920.
11 censuses, 1920–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Norfork’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Norfork itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Norfork post office opened in 1906, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
4 listings: 3 buildings, among them the Jacob Wolf House (listed 1973, the first), and 1 historic district, the Horace Mann School Historic District, with 4 contributing buildings. 7 historic buildings in all.
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 (15), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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.
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