Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1980 on and the census since 1900.
The Mallard post office opened in 1883, 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 Mallard’s history is told.
Peaked at 449 in 1930; 257 people lived here in 2020.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Mallard’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Mallard.
Mallard got its start circa 1882, following construction of the Des Moines and Fort Dodge Railroad through that territory. The town was named by the railroad president, an avid hunter, from mallard ducks inhabiting the area ponds.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Mallard, cut from the printed page as they were published.
largest available room. Chas. Ziegler started the first hardware store in the fall of 1883 and several other businesses started and from that time on the growth of the town was rapid and has continued until Mallard is today a prosperous business town. CUELEW The town of Curlew was another station established in 1882 on the Des Moines & Fort Dodge Railway. It was
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 SurveyThe U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Mallard.
1980Mallard 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 Mallard.
Nobody well known was born in Mallard itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Mallard post office opened in 1883, 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 (1), 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.
2004
