Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
7 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 69 buildings between them. Below: maps from 1978 on and the census since 1910.
The Kimballton post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Kimballton’s history is told.
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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Kimballton.
Kimballton was founded in 1883 when Hans Jensen Jorgensen opened a post office at the site. The town was officially established in 1888, and incorporated in 1908. The town is named for a railroad employee, Edward Kimball.
There are eight sites in or near Kimballton listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Kimballton, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Located on the most prominent corner of the town of Kimballton, Iowa, will be found the hardware and implement establishment owned by Hans P. Bonriesen, and over which he has presided since the spring of 1913. The business is a consolidation of the hardware store formerly owned by George J._Nelsen and the pump and windmill stock formerly owned by Nelsen & Nelsen. The consolidated business is housed in a handsome brick structure, twenty-five by eighty feet, with a basement under the entire building, and is filled to capacity with hardware and implements, such as carpenters' and
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Kimballton. 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 Kimballton.
Peaked at 428 in 1950; 291 people lived here in 2020.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Kimballton’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Kimballton post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
7 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Hans J. Jorgensen Barn (listed 1991, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Kimballton Commercial District and the Kimballton West 2nd-West 3rd Street Residential District, with 69 contributing buildings. 74 historic buildings in all.
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 (4), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (7), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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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