Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1962 on, and the census since 1870.
The Monterey post office opened in 1851, 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 Monterey’s history is told.
Peaked at 304 in 1920; 182 people lived here in 2020.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Monterey’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Monterey.
Monterey was first called Buena Vista, and under the latter name was laid out in 1849. The present name commemorates the Battle of Monterrey. A post office called Monterey has been in operation since 1851.
The Monterey Bandstand was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Monterey, cut from the printed page as they were published.
1881 until 1886 he acted in the capacity of bridge foreman for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company at Chico, Butte county, Cal., and in the latter part of 1886 came to Monterey county and bought eighty acres of his present ranch in the Jolon district. At the end of four years he added to his possession forty acres, and in 1890 leased the ranch and went to Pa-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
dence parts of the city, and from time to time valuable of city property have passed through his hands. In the early days of his residence here he organized the Monterey & Fresno Railroad, and he is now vice-president of the Monterey & Pacific Grove Street Railroad.
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.
In the archiveMonterey IN Sep 21 1907
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Monterey. 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 Monterey.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Monterey’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Monterey itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Monterey post office opened in 1851, 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 (4), 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.
2013
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2005