Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Cactus Forest was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1980.
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 Cactus Forest’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Cactus Forest yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Cactus Forest is a census-designated place (CDP) roughly sixty-nine miles southeast of Phoenix in Pinal County, Arizona, United States. The population was 594 at the 2010 census.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 594 to 606 (+2%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nobody well known was born in Cactus Forest itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
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 the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.