Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
4 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts. Below: maps from 1896 on and the census since 1870.
The Grand Junction post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1873.
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 Grand Junction’s history is told.
Peaked at 1,125 in 1940; 725 people lived here in 2020.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Grand Junction’s Wikipedia page.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1896Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Grand Junction.
Grand Junction took its name from its position at the junction of the Keokuk and Des Moines and the Chicago and Northwestern railroads. Grand Junction was incorporated in 1873.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
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 Grand Junction. 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 Grand Junction.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in Grand Junction itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Grand Junction post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1873.
4 listings: 1 building, among them the Frantz Round Barn (listed 1986, the first), and 3 historic districts, the Lincoln Highway-Buttrick's Creek to Grand Junction Segment, the Lincoln Highway-Grand Junction Segment and the Lincoln Highway-West Beaver Creek Abandoned Segment,.
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), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2021
2004