Founding year: the first Baxter Springs post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Baxter Springs’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Baxter Springs is more historic than 79% of U.S. towns, #19 of 151 in Kansas. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Baxter Springs’ overall grade.
Kansas towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Kansas town has 5.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Baxter Springs’ 13.0 sits above most of its state (69% of Kansas towns have fewer) while its 5 historic buildings outnumber those of 70% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±9.1 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). 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 →
What stands out about Baxter Springs’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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 year, then a sheet.
1885Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
For thousands of years, indigenous peoples had lived along the waterways throughout the west. The Osage migrated west from the Ohio River area of Kentucky, driven out by the Iroquois. They settled in Kansas by the mid-17th century, adopting Plains Indian traditions. They competed with other tribes and by 1750 they dominated much of what is now the region of Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Baxter Springs in 1904
Passages that mention Baxter Springs, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Cherokee County, Kansas1904 · page 352Read the page →
Read the text
when lie believed lie was in the right. He took great pride in his citizenship in Baxter Springs and as he was considered a remarkably shrewd business man, as well as an able lawyer, was actively associated with all enterprises tending toward the progress and development of the city. He was greatly instrumental in inducing the "Gulf" railroad to construct a line through
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.
Timeline
Baxter Springs, 1860 to 1975
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings 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 Baxter Springs. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1959Baxter Springs sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Baxter Springs.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewModoc Indians in their new home. View through camp, 1860
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Baxter Springs’ page.
The Baxter Springs post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Baxter Springs rank for history?
Baxter Springs is more historic than 79% of U.S. towns, #19 of 151 in Kansas. 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.
What is on the National Register in Baxter Springs?
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Johnston Library (listed 1976, the first). 5 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Baxter Springs?
47% of Baxter Springs’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.1 points), against a typical 10% for a Kansas town; the median home was built in 1945.
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), the Library of Congress (6), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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, 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.
1860
1908
1908
1908
2000
2000
