Blackfoot’s post office opened in 1879, and 19% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns · #4 of 59 in Idaho. What drives it
13 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts with 41 buildings between them. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1888 on, and the census since 1880.
Founding year: the first Blackfoot post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Blackfoot’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Blackfoot is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #4 of 59 in Idaho. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Blackfoot’s overall grade.
Idaho towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Idaho town has 8.4 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Blackfoot’s 39.9 sits above most of its state (84% of Idaho towns have fewer) while its 51 historic buildings outnumber those of 85% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.3 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Blackfoot’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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.
1888Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
On the National Register
13 listings protect 51 historic buildings
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
The city of Blackfoot is located near the center of Bingham County, on the south side of the Snake River. It was designated the county seat by the Thirteenth Territorial Legislature on January 13, 1885. Originally, the county seat was to be Eagle Rock (the original name for Idaho Falls). However, supposedly, on the night before the legislation was to be signed, men from Blackfoot bribed a clerk to erase Eagle Rock and write in Blackfoot. The measure went through without opposition and was signed by the governor. The origin of this accusation, written many years after the event, was a Blackfoot newspaper editor named Byrd Trego. The battle for county seat between Eagle Rock and Blackfoot was a political tug-of-war involving sectional and anti-Mormon factions in the Idaho Legislature. The leader of the southeastern Idaho anti-Mormons was a Yale graduate named Fred Dubois, who settled in B…
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Grew from 285 people in 1880 to 12,346 in 2020, more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Blackfoot’s Wikipedia page.
Questions about Blackfoot’s history
What year was Blackfoot founded?
The Blackfoot post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Blackfoot rank for history?
Blackfoot is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #4 of 59 in Idaho. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Blackfoot?
13 listings: 10 buildings, among them the Blackfoot Railway Depot (listed 1974, the first), and 3 historic districts, the North Shilling Historic District, the Shilling Avenue Historic District and the Eastern Idaho District Fair Historic District, with 41 contributing buildings. 51 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Blackfoot?
19% of Blackfoot’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.3 points), against a typical 8.5% for an Idaho town; the median home was built in 1971.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (3), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (13), 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.
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