Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 57% of U.S. towns · #34 of 123 in Arkansas. What drives it
Most of Siloam Springs was built recently: 10% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1995. 23 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 55 buildings between them. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1897 on, and the census since 1880.
Siloam Springs first appears in the census in 1880. Four smaller post offices, Hico (1855), Twin Springs (1858) and Hico (1885), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 57% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Siloam Springs is more historic than 57% of U.S. towns, #34 of 123 in Arkansas. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Arkansas towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Arkansas town has 20.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Siloam Springs’ 45.5 sits above most of its state (69% of Arkansas towns have fewer) while its 85 historic buildings outnumber those of 88% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first census (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Siloam Springs’s history is told.
Siloam Springs’s post office has been open since 1882. Four 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Siloam Springs.
Osage Indians were the known first inhabitants of the area. Siloam Springs' first white settlers were of German and Scots-Irish origin. Simon Sager is considered the founder of the town, then known as Hico.
In 2012, the city was named one of the 20 best small towns in America by Smithsonian magazine.
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.
Born hereRay Powell is born here
Born hereDamon Canfield is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveBlockfrontOne decade in the archive so far: the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2014City Park, Siloam Springs, AR 001
2014Alfrey-Brown House 001
2013Junction Highway 980 and Highway 59
2013Jct Airport Road
2013Highway 980
2013Highway 59 north, Siloam Springs, Arkansas 002
2013Highway 59 north, Siloam Springs, Arkansas 001
2012Siloam Springs 36
2011Arkansas 59
2011Arkansas 43
2011Arkansas 264 in
2011Arkansas 16S
2010US412ArkansasBorder
2009Kansas City Southern - Holiday Express 2009
2007Siloam Springs Arkansas Fountains
2005ARMap-doton-Siloam SpringsEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Siloam Springs. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Siloam Springs.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1897Sheet 1 of 3Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Siloam Springs’ page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 95 people in 1880 to 17,287 in 2020, more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Siloam Springs’ Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Siloam Springs post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1881.
Siloam Springs is more historic than 57% of U.S. towns, #34 of 123 in Arkansas. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
23 listings: 19 buildings, among them the Simon Sager Cabin (listed 1976, the first), 2 historic districts, the Siloam Springs Downtown Historic District and the Carl's Addition Historic District, with 55 contributing buildings, 1 structure, and 1 object. 85 historic buildings in all.
10% of Siloam Springs’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.8 points), against a typical 3.1% for an Arkansas town; the median home was built in 1995.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (18), the National Register of Historic Places (23), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1984
