★ LandmarkThe story
Read it all →How Newell came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Newell.
The town was named in honor of Frederick Haynes Newell, director of the United States Reclamation Service.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
–Not graded
History · Newell
11% of Newell’s homes were built before 1940
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them the Tule Lake Segregation Center, a National Historic Landmark, and a historic district with 6 buildings. Below: 6 old photos and papers and maps from 1951 on.
1on the National Register
11%homes built before 1940
6old photos & papers
What stands out about Newell’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · On the National Register
1 listing protects 6 historic buildings
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier.
place listed
1
National Historic Landmark
1
Tule Lake Segregation Center
historic buildings protected
6
each building in a district counts
first listed
2006
Tule Lake Segregation Center
Districts★ landmark
Architectural styles listings
U.S1
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Timeline
Newell, 1939 to 2006
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
By decade
Newell, decade by decade
2 decades in the archive, from the 1930s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1930s–1940s6 items
1939
1943
1943
19431950s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your albumOn the map
Newell on the map in 1951
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Newell.
1951Tulelake sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Newell.
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.
Retake this viewJapanese-American camp, war emergency evacuation, [Tule Lake Relocation Center, 1939
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Newell’s page.
Retake this view · +15Famous people
See all →Famous people close to Newell
Nobody well known was born in Newell itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
B
Brenda BakkeAmerican actress · b. 1963
Places that used to be
Places now gone
Gone or out of use
Tule Lake Relocation Centerbuilding
Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Finish Newell’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.Questions about Newell’s history
What is on the National Register in Newell?
One place: the Tule Lake Segregation Center (listed 2006).
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 the Library of Congress (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps 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.