Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1912 on, and the census since 1910.
The Dorris post office opened in 1907, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1908.
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 Dorris’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Dorris.
The town was named in 1907 by the Southern Pacific Railroad for brothers Presley A. and Carlos J. Dorris who raised stock in Little Shasta in the 1860s before moving to Dorris' Bridge on the Pit River, renamed Alturas, California in 1876.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Dorris, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Dorris were "-ranted the Hot creek, Cottonwood creek, and Lost river country, Captain Jack reserving a tract six miles square, at the mouth of Lost river, for a residence. The consideration was two hundred dollars. These treaties were all faithfully observed, and ever after the last one Captain Jack believed and said that he had sold the land to Fairchilds and Dorris.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Dorris. 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 Dorris.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1912Sheet 1 of 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Dorris’ page.
Retake this view · +15Between 214 and 973 people in every census since 1910.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Dorris’ Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Dorris post office opened in 1907, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1908.
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 Wikimedia Commons (7), the Library of Congress (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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