Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Stites

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Stites

Stites’ post office opened in 1900, and 24% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1910 on and the census since 1910.

1900first post office
0on the National Register
24%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Stites began

When was Stites founded?

1900

The Stites post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 300 in 19102020 census: 171126 years
Founding year: the first Stites post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Stites’ past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Stites are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 19243 editions of the USGS map, 1924 to 1981. Watch Stites change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Stites’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
On the map

Stites on the map, 1924 to 1981

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

Stites on the 1924 USGS mapStites on the 1966 USGS mapStites on the 1981 USGS map1924Weippe sheet · 1:125,000

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

The story

How Stites came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Stites.

Read it all →

Stites was named for Jacob Stites of New Jersey, who homesteaded the land in 1897 which became the city. He sold two years later and exercised his option to name it. Stites became the eastern terminus of the Northern Pacific branch line up the Clearwater in 1900, later the Camas Prairie Railroad's first subdivision line. It climbed the main river eastward from Lewiston to Kooskia and then turned south to ascend the lower South Fork. The abandoned spur was removed in the 1980s, and the city incorporated in early 1905.

The original highway bridge (1911) that crossed the Salmon River just north of Riggins was replaced in 1936 and moved fifty miles (80 km) north to Stites.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Stites, decade by decade

Today5 recent
Looking North, 19102025Looking North, 1910Railway Station, circa 19082023Railway Station, circa 1908Bird's Eye View, circa 19072023Bird's Eye View, circa 1907Elk City Stage, January 19092020Elk City Stage, January 1909IDMap-doton-Stites2004IDMap-doton-Stites
Every building

Stites, building by building, 1910–1929

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.

Stites fire insurance map, 1910, sheet 11910Sheet 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.

People over time

Stites, census by census

0100200300192019401960198020002020Peak: 317

Between 171 and 317 people in every census since 1910.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

Questions about Stites’ history

What year was Stites founded?

The Stites post office opened in 1900, 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 (5), 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.