Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1958 on and the census since 1880.
The Dana post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Dana’s history is told.
Peaked at 310 in 1900; 162 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Dana’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Dana.
Dana was originally called Martin. The present name is for Thomas Dana, a railroad official. A post office has been in operation at Dana since 1873.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Dana, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Groveland has two villages and railroad stations within its limits : New Rutland on theIlinois Central Railroad, and Dana on the Chicago, Pekin & Southwestern—both of which roads pass through the town. New Rutland has five churches, a graded school, ten stores, a grain elevator, mill, and 800 population.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Dana. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Dana.
Nobody well known was born in Dana itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Dana post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (2), 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 old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2021
2006
