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Old store in GiselaPhoto: Alan Levine from Strawberry, United States · CC BY 2.0
–Not graded
History · Gisela

Gisela’s post office opened in 1895

Most of Gisela was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1978. Below: 1 old photo or paper and maps from 1936 on.

1895first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Gisela’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Gisela began

When was Gisela founded?

1895

The Gisela post office opened in 1895, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 536131 years
Founding year: the first Gisela post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Gisela’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Gisela’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewEffects of Grazing - Arizona: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

Gisela, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Gisela yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Gisela ( ghy-SEE-lə) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Gila County, Arizona, United States. The population was 570 at the 2010 census. Gisela was named after the heroine in the book Countess Gisela by E. Marlitt. The town schoolteacher was reading the book to her students when she was asked by her husband, the postmaster, to help name the little settlement. She asked the school children what names they liked, and they voted to name their new town Gisela. The students did not know how to pronounce the name correctly, so they called it ghy-SEE-lə.

Its first post office opened in 1895. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 570 to 536 (-6%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Gisela, 1895 to 1936

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1895Post officeThe Gisela post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1911Post officeThe Gisela post office closes
  5. 1936On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Gisela, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
Effects of Grazing - ArizonaDate?Effects of Grazing - Arizona
Today5 recent
Gisela, AZ2011Gisela, AZGisela, AZ - panoramio - don mario2011Gisela, AZ - panoramio - don marioGisela, AZ - panoramio - don mario (2)2011Gisela, AZ - panoramio - don mario (2)Gisela, AZ - panoramio - don mario (1)2011Gisela, AZ - panoramio - don mario (1)Old store in2006Old store in
On the map

Gisela on the map, 1936 to 2004

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

Gisela on the 1936 USGS mapGisela on the 1942 USGS mapGisela on the 1972 USGS mapGisela on the 2004 USGS map1936Payson sheet · 1:62,500

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

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Effects of Grazing - Arizona
Retake this viewEffects of Grazing - Arizona

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Gisela’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Gisela had its own post office from 1895 to 1911.

Gisela
1895–1911
18901960today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Gisela’s history

What year was Gisela founded?

The Gisela post office opened in 1895, 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 Wikimedia Commons (6), 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.