Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1951 on and the census since 1880.
The Denver post office opened in 1869, 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 Denver’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Denver.
Denver was laid out in 1872 when the Eel River Railroad was extended to that point. The town was named after Denver, Colorado. The post office at Denver has been in operation since 1869.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Denver, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Anson In May, 1853, Thomas Jameson, Eli Freestone, Michael Taylor and Beu.iamin Griffith laid out the town of Anson at the junction of sections 14, 15, 22 antl 23, about a mile east of the present town of Denver, in tile western part of Kichlanti township. At that time the Cincinnati Peru & Chicago Railroad was being surveyed through the northern part of the county, and the founders of this town hoped that it would be on the line of the new railroad. When the Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago
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.
Weddings 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 Denver. 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 Denver.
Between 273 and 589 people in every census since 1880.
12 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Denver’s Wikipedia page.
The Denver post office opened in 1869, 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), 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.
