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History · Bone Gap

Bone Gap’s post office opened in 1868, and 29% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: the census since 1900.

1868first post office
0on the National Register
29%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Quick answers

How Bone Gap began

When was Bone Gap founded?

1868

The Bone Gap post office opened in 1868, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 496 in 19002020 census: 181158 years
Founding year: the first Bone Gap post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

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

Start Bone Gap’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bone Gap’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 Bone Gap came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Bone Gap.

Read it all →

According to local historians, the Piankeshaw Indians established a village in the vicinity of modern Bone Gap prior to the arrival of permanent European settlers. This village was situated in a gap in the treeline. When the first permanent European settlers arrived in 1830, they found a large number of discarded animal bones left by the Piankeshaw inhabitants, and named the settlement "Bone Gap."

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Bone Gap, decade by decade

Today3 recent
Bone-Gap-grain-elevator-il2020Bone-Gap-grain-elevator-ilBone-Gap-depot-il2020Bone-Gap-depot-ilBone-Gap-IOOF-PO-il2020Bone-Gap-IOOF-PO-il
People over time

Bone Gap, census by census

01002003004005001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 517

Between 181 and 517 people in every census since 1900.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

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

Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Bone Gap’s post office has been open since 1868.

Gone or out of use
Salem Methodist Episcopal Churchchurch
1cemetery inside Bone Gap
Bone Gap

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Bone Gap’s history

What year was Bone Gap founded?

The Bone Gap post office opened in 1868, 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 (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.