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History · Stanley

Stanley’s post office opened in 1892, and 2 of its places are on the National Register

Most of Stanley was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1995. Its Register listings are the Stanley Ranger Station and the Niece Brothers' Store. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1963 on, and the census since 1950.

1892first post office
2on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
12old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Stanley’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Stanley began

When was Stanley founded?

1892

The Stanley post office opened in 1892, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 33 in 19502020 census: 116134 years
Founding year: the first Stanley post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Stanley’s past

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

A town in old photos12 old photos, postcards and papers.
★ What stands out · By decade

Stanley, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1930s12 items
Cabin 1, interior of dining room facing east looking into kitchen. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin 1, Block A, Lot 11933Cabin 1, interior of dining room facing east looking …Cabin 1, interior of dining room facing southwest showing fireplace. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin 1, Block A, Lot 11933Cabin 1, interior of dining room facing southwest sho…Cabin 1, view facing north. Rubble fieldstone chimney. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin 1, Block A, Lot 11933Cabin 1, view facing north. Rubble fieldstone chimney…Cabin 1, view facing northeast. Storage shed addition at right. Stone steps at west entrance at left. - Peavy Cabins, C…1933Cabin 1, view facing northeast. Storage shed addition…Cabin 1, view facing southwest. Storage shed addition at left. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin 1, Block A, Lot 11933Cabin 1, view facing southwest. Storage shed addition…Cabin 2, interior view facing southwest showing fireplace and doorway to sleeping porch. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin 2, Block…1933Cabin 2, interior view facing southwest showing firep…Cabin 2, view facing northeast showing rubble fieldstone chimney. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin 2, Block A, Lot 11933Cabin 2, view facing northeast showing rubble fieldst…Cabin 2, view facing northwest. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin 2, Block A, Lot 11933Cabin 2, view facing northwest. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin…Cabin 2, view facing southeast. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin 2, Block A, Lot 11933Cabin 2, view facing southeast. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin…Cabin 3, interior view facing northeast. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin 3, Block A, Lot 11933Cabin 3, interior view facing northeast. - Peavy Cabi…Cabin 3, interior view facing southeast. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin 3, Block A, Lot 11933Cabin 3, interior view facing southeast. - Peavy Cabi…Cabin 3, view facing northeast. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin 3, Block A, Lot 11933Cabin 3, view facing northeast. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin…
1940s–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
The story

How Stanley came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Stanley.

Read it all →

Fur trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company discovered the Stanley Basin in the 1820s, but it was mostly avoided due to scarcity of beaver. Captain John Stanley, a Confederate Civil War veteran, led a party of twenty-three prospectors through the area in 1863 (or 1864), but they found little gold and moved on and discovered the Atlanta lode on the south end of the Sawtooths. The site was not considered a town until 1919 when its streets and lots were surveyed and recorded.

Stanley has long been a gathering place for the sparsely populated region.

In 2005, Hannah Stauts won the city's mayoral election at age 22 to become the state's youngest elected mayor.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Stanley, 1892 to 1963

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1892Post officeThe Stanley post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1933In the archiveCabin 1, interior of dining room facing east looking into kitchen. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin …
  5. 1963On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
On the map

Stanley on the map in 1963

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Stanley.

Stanley on the 1963 USGS map1963Stanley 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 Stanley.

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.

Cabin 1, interior of dining room facing east looking into kitchen. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin 1, Block A, Lot 1
Retake this viewCabin 1, interior of dining room facing east looking into kitchen. - Peavy Cabins, Cabin 1, Block A, Lot 1, 1933

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

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

2 historic places in Stanley

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
2
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
3
each building in a district counts
first listed
1982
Stanley Ranger Station
Niece Brothers' Store
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Rustic1
All 2 listings
Stanley Ranger StationBuilding · listed 1982Niece Brothers' StoreBuilding · listed 1995

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Stanley, census by census

01001960198020002020116

Grew from 33 people in 1950 to 116 in 2020, 3 times over.

8 censuses, 1950–2020.

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

Help out

Finish Stanley’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewCabin 1, interior of dining room facing…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Stanley’s history

What year was Stanley founded?

The Stanley post office opened in 1892, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Stanley?

Two places: the Stanley Ranger Station (listed 1982) and the Niece Brothers' Store (1995).

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 (12), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.