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History · White Bird

White Bird’s post office opened in 1866, and 18% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Dr. Wilson Foskett Home and Drugstore. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1914 on, and the census since 1960.

1866first post office
1on the National Register
18%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From White Bird’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How White Bird began

When was White Bird founded?

1866

The White Bird post office opened in 1866, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 253 in 19602020 census: 83160 years
Founding year: the first White Bird post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about White Bird’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 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Mapped building by building3 fire insurance maps, 1914 to 1929, drew every building in White Bird.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start White Bird’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 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 viewPrice Ranch: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Every building

White Bird, building by building, 1914–1929

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.

White Bird fire insurance map, 1914, sheet 11914Sheet 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.

The story

How White Bird came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of White Bird.

Read it all →

At the southwest corner of the Camas Prairie, White Bird is near the Salmon River crossing point for the Lewis and Clark expedition. It is also the location of the Battle of White Bird Canyon in 1877, which was the first fight of the Nez Perce War and a significant defeat of the U.S. Army.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

White Bird, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
Price RanchDate?Price Ranch
Today6 recent
White Bird Hill Grade, 19242021White Bird Hill Grade, 1924Twelve Switch-Backs, circa 1960s2021Twelve Switch-Backs, circa 1960sWhite Bird, Idaho2018White Bird, IdahoWhite Bird, Idaho full2018White Bird, Idaho fullWhite Bird, Idaho2018White Bird, IdahoIDMap-doton-WhiteBird2004IDMap-doton-WhiteBird
On the map

White Bird on the map, 1963 to 1995

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

White Bird on the 1963 USGS mapWhite Bird on the 1982 USGS mapWhite Bird on the 1995 USGS map1963White Bird 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 White Bird.

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.

Price Ranch
Retake this viewPrice Ranch

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

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in White Bird

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
2
each building in a district counts
first listed
2005
Dr. Wilson Foskett Home and Drugstore
Dr. Wilson Foskett Home and Drugstore
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Queen Anne1
One-Part Commercial Block1
Dr. Wilson Foskett Home and DrugstoreQueen Anne

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

People over time

White Bird, census by census

01002001960198020002020Peak: 253

Between 83 and 253 people in every census since 1960.

7 censuses, 1960–2020.

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

Questions about White Bird’s history

What year was White Bird founded?

The White Bird post office opened in 1866, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in White Bird?

One place: the Dr. Wilson Foskett Home and Drugstore (listed 2005).

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 (6), the Library of Congress (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.