Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Hardware Building. Below: maps from 1901 on and the census since 1900.
The Wadena post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Wardena (1863), 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 Wadena’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Wadena. 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 Wadena.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Wadena yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Wadena is a city in Fayette County, Iowa, United States. The population was 209 at the time of the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1878. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 262 to 209 (-20%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Wadena, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Wadena has lately become a village of considerable note — the Volga Valley Railroad having been opened to this point during the present year; The construction train reached Wadena late in the Spring, and on June 2, 1878, the first freight shipment was made from this station, it being a barre of apples, consigned to E. Hill, Volga City.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The site of the town of Wadena was purchased by Samuel Stevens, in 1851,, it being selected as part of the State school lands. The beginning of the town was made in 1855, by Horace Countryman and his father, who built a house and a saw-mill.
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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.
Peaked at 377 in 1940; 209 people lived here in 2020.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Wadena’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Wadena itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Wadena’s post office has been open since 1878. Another post office, Wardena, 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).
The Wadena post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Hardware Building (listed 1977).
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
