Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1964 on and the census since 1890.
The Boyden post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1889. Two smaller post offices, Sheridan (1879) and Kuyper (1881), 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 Boyden’s history is told.
Boyden’s post office has been open since 1881. 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 Boyden yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Boyden is a city in Sioux County, Iowa, United States. The population was 701 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1881. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 707 in 2010, 701 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
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 SurveyThe U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Boyden.
1964Boyden sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Boyden.
Between 277 and 708 people in every census since 1890.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Boyden’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Boyden itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Boyden post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1889.
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 (2), 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.
2021
2004