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History · Tensed

Tensed’s post office opened in 1911, and 22% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1957 on and the census since 1950.

1911first post office
0on the National Register
22%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Tensed began

When was Tensed founded?

1911

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

First census: 189 in 19502020 census: 84115 years
Founding year: the first Tensed post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Tensed’s 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 Tensed are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Tensed’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Tensed came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Tensed.

Read it all →

The city was originally called Desmet, after the Belgian Jesuit missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet, who was active with the Coeur d'Alene nation, but the post office requested a change as that name was taken by nearby De Smet. The name was reversed to Temsed and then misspelled by the post office.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Tensed, decade by decade

Today4 recent
Street Scene, circa 19202014Street Scene, circa 1920Street Scene, circa 19202014Street Scene, circa 1920Lonesome Without You, 19122014Lonesome Without You, 1912IDMap-doton-Tensed2004IDMap-doton-Tensed
On the map

Tensed on the map, 1957 to 1985

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

Tensed on the 1957 USGS mapTensed on the 1985 USGS map1957Tensed 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 Tensed.

People over time

Tensed, census by census

01002001960198020002020Peak: 189

Between 84 and 189 people in every census since 1950.

8 censuses, 1950–2020.

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

Questions about Tensed’s history

What year was Tensed founded?

The Tensed 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 →
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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), 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.