Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 23% of U.S. towns · #414 of 847 in California. What drives it
Below: maps from 1922 on and the census since 1960.
The Cutten post office opened in 1929, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 23% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cutten is more historic than 23% of U.S. towns, #414 of 847 in California. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Few California towns list much on the Register (a typical California town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Cutten’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (31% of California towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
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 →
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 Cutten’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1980 and 1990, then more than doubled.
7 censuses, 1960–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cutten’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cutten. 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 Cutten.
From Wikipedia’s history of Cutten.
The first post office at Cutten opened in 1929. An early name for the area was the Cutten-McDonald Tract. The ZIP Code is 95534. However, the 95534 zip code is specific to the post office only and all physical addresses within the CDP have the Eureka, California 95503 zip code.
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.
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 Cutten itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Cutten had its own post office from 1929 to 1974.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Cutten post office opened in 1929, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Cutten is more historic than 23% of U.S. towns, #414 of 847 in California. 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.
15% of Cutten’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±12.8 points), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1968.
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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
