Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 88% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church and the Possom Bottom Covered Bridge. Below: maps from 1955 on and old-book passages.
More historic than 88% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Helt Township is more historic than 88% of U.S. towns. All 2 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
Indiana towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Indiana town has 7.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Helt Township’s 12.4 sits above most of its state (65% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 3 listings outnumber those of 65% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: our sources. Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Four other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Helt Township’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Helt Township.
Helt Township was named for Daniel Helt, a pioneer who settled in Vermillion County in 1818.
The Possum Bottom Covered Bridge and Salem Methodist Episcopal Church are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Helt Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
first at Fort Harrison, near the present site of Terre Haute, and in 1823 came to Yermillion County, and was one of the first settlers on Heidle's Prairie in Helt Township. Daniel G. was reared in his father's pioneer home, his youth being spent in assisting in the work of clearing and improving the farm and in attending the rude log cabin subscrip-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The Indianapolis, Decatur iz Springfield Railroad was completed through Vermillion County, laterally, and through Helt Township longitudinally, in 1873. In April, 1874, the railroad company fixed upon a point on their road near the head of the Little Raccoon Creek and about two and a half miles east of the western boundary of the township for a
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 Helt Township. 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 Helt Township.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in Helt Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Helt Township is more historic than 88% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
3 listings: 1 building, among them the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church (listed 1979, the first), and 1 structure.
31% of Helt Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.3 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1968.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (3), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
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