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History · Calumet

Calumet’s post office opened in 1888, and 46% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1971 on and the census since 1900.

1888first post office

0on the National Register

46%homes built before 1940

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Quick answers

How Calumet began

When was Calumet founded?

1888

The Calumet post office opened in 1888, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 113 in 19002020 census: 146138 years

Founding year: the first Calumet post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Calumet’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 Calumet are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 274 in 1940; 146 people lived here in 2020.Old housesHalf of Calumet’s homes were built before 1944.

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Start Calumet’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

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People over time

Calumet, census by census

Peaked at 274 in 1940; 146 people lived here in 2020.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

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

The story

How Calumet came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Calumet.

Read it all →

Establishment of the community followed the laying of a rail line and construction of a depot in 1887 by the Illinois Central Railroad. Calumet was platted in that year, and the formation of a post office and construction of a town hall and commercial businesses quickly followed — all capitalizing on the availability of rail service to and from the region. The siting of the railroad, however, proved to supplant another small town, Erie, which had been located a half-mile west and one and a half miles south of the Calumet depot.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Calumet in 1897

Passages that mention Calumet, cut from the printed page as they were published.

**History of O'Brien County, Iowa, from its organization to the present time**1897 · page 346Read the page →
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The town of Calumet was laid out by the Illinois Central Railroad company in the year of 1887, on section 22 in Liberty township.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

The town was incorporated in 1894. A petition was presented at the December, 1894, term of the district court praying for the incorporation of Calumet, and to include as its territory the following described land: The south half of the northwest quarter and the north half of the southeast quarter o… — **History of O'Brien County, Iowa, from its organization to the present time**1897 · page 349Read the page →
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The town was incorporated in 1894. A petition was presented at the December, 1894, term of the district court praying for the incorporation of Calumet, and to include as its territory the following described land: The south half of the northwest quarter and the north half of the southeast quarter of section 22, Liberty township. The court appointed the following named commissioners for the purpose of incorporation : W. M. Bunce, B. Har-
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.

Timeline

Calumet, 1888 to 1971

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

19th century
1888Post officeThe Calumet post office opens
20th century
1940CensusPopulation peaks at 274
1971On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey

By decade

Calumet, decade by decade

Today2 recent

2021CalumetIowaPopPlot

2004IAMap-doton-Calumet

On the map

Calumet on the map, 1971 to 1985

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

1971Sutherland West 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 Calumet.

Places that used to be

Places now gone

Calumet’s post office has been open since 1888.

Gone or out of use

Calumetlocale

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

Questions about Calumet’s history

What year was Calumet founded?

The Calumet post office opened in 1888, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikipedia, 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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