Founding year: the first Arnolds Park post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Arnolds Park’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Arnolds Park is more historic than 49% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Arnolds Park’s overall grade.
Iowa towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Iowa town has 9.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Arnolds Park’s 10.8 sits near the middle of its state (60% of Iowa towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.2 points). 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 Arnolds Park’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Arnolds Park yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Arnolds Park is a city in Dickinson County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,110 in the 2020 census, a decline from the 1,162 population in the 2000 census.
Its first post office opened in 1888. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 1,126 in 2010, 1,110 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Arnolds Park, 1883 to 1933
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.
The Arnolds Park post office opened in 1888, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Arnolds Park rank for history?
Arnolds Park is more historic than 49% of U.S. towns. 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.
What is on the National Register in Arnolds Park?
One place: the Pillsbury Point State Park (listed 1993).
How old are the homes in Arnolds Park?
13% of Arnolds Park’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.2 points), against a typical 22% for an Iowa town; the median home was built in 1997.
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 (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
2024
2021
2004