The Stratton post office opened in 1906, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Clermont (1881) and Claremont (1888), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 421 in 19202020 census: 656120 years
Founding year: the first Stratton post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about Stratton’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Stratton’s post office has been open since 1906. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Clermont
1881–1883
Claremont
1888–1906
Stratton
1906–today
18801950today
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The story so far
Stratton, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Stratton yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Stratton is a statutory town in Kit Carson County, Colorado, United States. The population was 656 at the 2020 census. Stratton was named in honor of the gold miner and philanthropist Winfield Scott Stratton.
Its first post office opened in 1906. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 658 in 2010, 656 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Stratton, 1881 to 1969
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Stratton. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1969Stratton sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Stratton.
Every building
Stratton, building by building, 1913–1920
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.
1913Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 viewColorado [Adams County - Las Animas County (part)], 1940
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Stratton’s page.
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 (4), 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2019
2019
2017
