Founding year: the first Bellemont post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Bellemont’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bellemont is more historic than 12% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Bellemont’s overall grade.
Few Arizona towns list much on the Register (a typical Arizona town has 0.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Bellemont’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (29% of Arizona towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D− to C−. The pre-1940 share (±1.8 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (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 →
What stands out about Bellemont’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Bellemont's population was 113 in 1940, and 25 in the 1960 census.
On October 6, 2010, Bellemont was struck by three rare strong tornadoes in short succession. The 1st tornado was rated EF2, the second was rated EF3, and the third was rated EF2. The tornadoes made 15 homes uninhabitable, resulting in the evacuation of about 30 people. A train and 30 recreational vehicles were damaged, but no serious injuries or deaths were reported.
On May 13, 2019, actor Issac Kappy committed suicide by jumping off the Hughes Ave./Transwestern Rd. overpass for Interstate 40 in Bellemont, then being struck by a passing car on the eastbound side.
The Bellemont post office opened in 1887, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Bellemont rank for history?
Bellemont is more historic than 12% of U.S. towns. 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.
How old are the homes in Bellemont?
0.0% of Bellemont’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.8 points), against a typical 0.4% for an Arizona town; the median home was built in 2007.
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 (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.