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DHistory
History · Superior

Superior’s post office opened in 1896

More historic than 12% of U.S. towns · #114 of 159 in Colorado. What drives it

Most of Superior was built recently: 0.1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1997. Below: maps from 1942 on and the census since 1910.

1896first post office
0on the National Register
0.1%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Pleiades Two · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers

How Superior began

When was Superior founded?

1896

The Superior post office opened in 1896, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 349 in 19102020 census: 13,094130 years

How historic is Superior?

D

More historic than 12% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Superior post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Superior’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Superior is more historic than 12% of U.S. towns, #114 of 159 in Colorado. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Superior’s overall grade.
Founding era1896, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19400.1% of homes (±0.2) · typical CO town 2.5% · U.S. 8.4%DNational RegisterNo listings counted · typical CO town 1.1 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 12%
NewerOlder
Colorado towns of 2,500+ (159)Ahead of 28%

Few Colorado towns list much on the Register (a typical Colorado town has 1.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Superior’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (22% of Colorado towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D− to D. The pre-1940 share (±0.2 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.

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 →

What stands out about Superior’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Superior are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost half of its people between 1910 and 1950, then grew more than tenfold.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Superior’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Superior’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Superior, census by census

02,0004,0006,0008,00010,00012,00014,000192019401960198020002020349 in 1910Low: 134

Lost half of its people between 1910 and 1950, then grew more than tenfold.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Superior’s Wikipedia page.

The story

How Superior came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Superior.

Read it all →

Superior is located in Colorado’s Front Range on the western side of the Denver Basin and is a part of the Laramie Formation. The formation is known for its deposits of bituminous and lignite coal, which led to the area’s development as a coal mining hub in the late 1800s. The area became known as the “Northern Field,” covering a 20-mile (32.19 km) radius from the city of Boulder, extending through the present-day counties of Adams, Boulder, Broomfield, Gilpin, Jefferson, Larimer and Weld.

ChaptersGeologyEarly PeoplesModern HistoryRecent events

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Superior, 1896 to 2020

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1896Post officeThe Superior post office opens
  3. 1899Born hereLenny Metz is born here
  4. 20th century
  5. 1942On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 21st century
  7. 2020CensusPopulation peaks at 13,094
By decade

Superior, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Wildfire Smoke over Superior, Colorado 2021-12-302021Wildfire Smoke over Superior, Colorado 2021-12-30Superior, Colorado, Fall 20112011Superior, Colorado, Fall 2011
On the map

Superior on the map, 1942 to 1971

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Superior. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Superior on the 1942 USGS mapSuperior on the 1950 USGS mapSuperior on the 1965 USGS mapSuperior on the 1971 USGS map1942Louisville 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 Superior.

Places that used to be

Old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Superior’s post office has been open since 1896.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Rock Creek
Gone or out of use
Jenkins Minemine
1cemetery inside Superior
Superior

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Broomfield1 historic placeC−

Questions about Superior’s history

What year was Superior founded?

The Superior post office opened in 1896, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Superior rank for history?

Superior is more historic than 12% of U.S. towns, #114 of 159 in Colorado. 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.

How old are the homes in Superior?

0.1% of Superior’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 2.5% for a Colorado town; the median home was built in 1997.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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).

From Wikimedia Commons (2), 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) 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.