Founding year: the first Filer post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Filer’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Filer is more historic than 33% of U.S. towns, #37 of 59 in Idaho. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Filer’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 Filer’s 3.4 sits near the middle of its state (45% of Idaho towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.9 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 Filer’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The city of Filer was named after Walter G. Filer, who served as general manager of the Twin Falls Water and Land Company. The city was established in 1906 as the terminus of the Oregon Short Line branch of Twin Falls. Walter Filer was a mining engineer and surveyor from Sharon, Pennsylvania, who supervised the construction of the Milner diversion dam on the Snake River. Since 1916, the City of Filer has been the home of the Twin Falls County Fair and Rodeo (Magic Valley Stampede).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Filer. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1950Filer sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Filer.
Every building
Filer, building by building, 1911–1918
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.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
People over time
Filer, census by census
Grew from 214 people in 1910 to 2,738 in 2020, more than tenfold.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Filer’s Wikipedia page.
Questions about Filer’s history
What year was Filer founded?
The Filer post office opened in 1905, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Filer rank for history?
Filer is more historic than 33% of U.S. towns, #37 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 Filer?
One place: the Achille Duquesne House (listed 1993).
How old are the homes in Filer?
15% of Filer’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.9 points), against a typical 8.5% for an Idaho town; the median home was built in 1979.
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 (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (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 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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