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History · Leadore

Leadore’s post office opened in 1911, and 16% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1956 on, and the census since 1950.

1911first post office
0on the National Register
16%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Leadore’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Leadore began

When was Leadore founded?

1911

The Leadore post office opened in 1911, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 159 in 19502020 census: 98115 years
Founding year: the first Leadore post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Leadore’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Leadore’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Leadore’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewGilmoreAndPittsburgh-01: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Leadore came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Leadore.

Read it all →

The town of Leadore dates from 1910, when the Gilmore and Pittsburgh Railroad was constructed from Armstead, Montana, over Bannock Pass and into the Lemhi Valley. This occurred because the original location for the train station in the town of Junction had to be altered when the owner of the land refused to sell. The town was home to the railroad's repair shops, and was the point where the railroad's branch line to Gilmore connected with the main line.

Though the railroad ceased operating in 1939, Leadore has remained the largest town in the immediate area.

In 2001 a replica of the town's old railway station was constructed in Leadore. The new building serves as the town's community center.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Leadore, 1911 to 1956

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 20th century
  2. 1911Post officeThe Leadore post office opens
  3. 1912In the archiveGilmoreAndPittsburgh-01
  4. 1956On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Leadore, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s1 item
GilmoreAndPittsburgh-011912GilmoreAndPittsburgh-01
1920s–1990snothing yet
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.
Add from your album
Date unknown1 to date
Warren King Charcoal Kilns, 5 miles west of Idaho Highway 28Date?Warren King Charcoal Kilns, 5 miles west of Idaho Hig…
Today3 recent
Meadow Lake, Idaho2016Meadow Lake, IdahoBirch Creek and Lemhi Range2012Birch Creek and Lemhi RangeIDMap-doton-Leadore2004IDMap-doton-Leadore
On the map

Leadore on the map, 1956 to 1987

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Leadore. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Leadore on the 1956 USGS mapLeadore on the 1987 USGS map1956Leadore sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Leadore.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

GilmoreAndPittsburgh-01
Retake this viewGilmoreAndPittsburgh-01, 1912

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Leadore’s page.

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Leadore, census by census

01001960198020002020Peak: 159

Between 74 and 159 people in every census since 1950.

8 censuses, 1950–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Leadore’s Wikipedia page.

Questions about Leadore’s history

What year was Leadore founded?

The Leadore post office opened in 1911, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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), the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.