Founding year: the first Mescal post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Mescal’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Mescal is more historic than 10% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Mescal’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 Mescal’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 is a Census survey estimate (±3.4 points). 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 Mescal’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Mescal yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Mescal is a census-designated place located in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. Mescal was originally a populated place, at a rail station on the Southern Pacific Railroad at an elevation of 4,085 feet. The modern community lies to the south of the railroad near Interstate 10, at 4,170 feet. Mescal had a population of 1,812 in the 2010 Census. Mescal had a post office from 1913 until 1931.
Its first post office opened in 1913. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,812 to 1,751 (-3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Mescal’s history
What year was Mescal founded?
The Mescal post office opened in 1913, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Mescal rank for history?
Mescal is more historic than 10% 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 Mescal?
3% of Mescal’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.4 points), against a typical 0.4% for an Arizona town; the median home was built in 2001.
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 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.
