Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1918 on and the census since 1880.
The Carbon post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name.
Carbon was named after the Carbon Coal Company.
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 Carbon’s history is told.
Peaked at 951 in 1900; 263 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Carbon’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Carbon.
Carbon had its start by the building of the railroad through that territory. A post office was established at Carbon in 1870. It was named after the Carbon Coal Company.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Carbon, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Port Carbon is now connected with the railroad to Philadelphia, through the Mount Carbon and Port Carbon railroad, which was opened on the 1st of December last, by tlie unyiulding perseverance of the engineers who were actively engaged in urging the work to its completion wiihin the time required by the charter.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Carbon is a station on the Rocky Fork branch of the Northern Pacific railroad. 38 miles southwest of Billings.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Carbon county has been aptly and correctly named the "Gem of the Mountains." This county was formed and organized in 1895 from what was formerly a part of the Crow Indian reservation and which was ceded to the government in 1892 and thrown open to settlement. It lies between the Yellowstone and Stillwater rivers on the north and west, the
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 SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Carbon. 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 Carbon.
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 sheet.
1918Sheet 1 of 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Nobody well known was born in Carbon itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Carbon post office opened in 1870, 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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
