Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
2 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 1 buildings. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1945 on, and the census since 1880.
The Trinidad post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1870.
From Wikipedia’s history of Trinidad.
The Yurok people established the village of Tsurai on bluffs overlooking Trinidad Bay in prehistoric times. They occupied the village for thousands of years before vacating it in 1916.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Trinidad, cut from the printed page as they were published.
In the year 1802 there resided in the town of Galway a physician named Lynch, whose brother-in-law, Mr. Nicholas Lynch, had some time previously settled in Trinidad. In 1801 Nicholas Lynch paid a visit to his relations in Ireland and described to his brother-in-law, in very glowing terms, the advantages he would reap if he abandoned the scanty emoluments of a country Doctor in the West of Ireland, and establish himself in Trinidad, where, at that time, duly qualified medical men were very rarely met with.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The Island of Trinidad, at that period, formed part of the Diocese of Guayana, which was created by Pope Pius VI. in May, 1790, and which included, besides Trinidad, the Island of Margarita and the Provinces of Guayana and Cumana. When the Island was captured by the British, the See was occupied by the Right Reverend Doctor Francisco de Ibarra, who was succeeded, in 1801, by the Right Reverend Jose Antonio Mohedano, by whom the following letter was addressed to the Governor of Trinidad : —
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.
BuiltTrinidad Head Light Station is built
In the archiveTrinidad School in 1913
In the archiveThe smelt fisher--Trinidad Yurok
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveReplica of Trinidad Head Light in northern California3 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
![Scenic view of Pacific coast in Northern California [Trinidad State Beach]](https://images.townratings.com/story/1208/883c3c32973334c4663a-s.jpg)
2012Scenic view of Pacific coast in Northern California […
2012Scenic view of Pacific Ocean
2012Scenic view of Pacific Ocean
2012View of Pacific Ocean
2012Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse
2012Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse
2012Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse
2012Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse
2012Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse
2012Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse
2012Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse
2012Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse
2012Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse
2012Burl art in Northern California
2011Tsurai Plaque
2011Trinidad CA Murdered by Capitalism
2008Trinidad CA in 2008
2008Lonly Peir in
2006Trinidad CaliforniaEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Trinidad. 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 Trinidad.
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 Trinidad’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Between 94 and 379 people in every census since 1880.
11 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Trinidad’s Wikipedia page.
Trinidad’s post office has been open since 1851.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Trinidad post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1870.
Two places: the Holy Trinity Church (listed 1980) and the Trinidad Head Light Station (1991).
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 (17), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, 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 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.
1926
1926
