Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1940 on and the census since 1900.
The Benton post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Estella (1861) and Bloomington (1875), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Benton’s history is told.
Peaked at 246 in 1920; 39 people lived here in 2020.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Benton’s Wikipedia page.
Benton’s post office has been open since 1890. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Benton yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Benton is a city in Ringgold County, Iowa, United States. The population was 39 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1890. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 41 to 39 (-5%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Benton, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Greeley he would vote for him for President some day, a promise that he fulfilled the Fall before his death, VINTON, the county seat and principal town of Benton county, is a flourishing town containing about 3,000 inhabitants. It is situated on the west bank of the Cedar River (south bank at this point), and occupies the only really fine position for a good town on the Cedar in Benton county. It is on a high bottom that never overflows, and the prairie gradually rises from the bank southward, and
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
year, on the 8th of January, 1866, the resolution adopted September 6, 1865, appropriating $2,000 for a bridge at Vinton, Avas rescinded, and the following question submitted to a vote of the people, to be held on the second Tuesday in October, 1866 : " Shall the Board of Supervisors of the County of Benton, in the State of Iowa, build, erect and construct, on the most approved plan, a free bridge across the Cedar River at or near the town of Vinton, in said
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Benton. 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 Benton.
The Benton post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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 (3), 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.
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