Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Sawyer City Jail. Below: maps from 1973 on and the census since 1920.
Sawyer dates its founding to 1886 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1920.
Sawyer was named for Warren Sawyer, a railroad official.
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 Sawyer’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Sawyer.
Sawyer was founded in about 1886. It was named for Warren Sawyer, a railroad official.
The first post office in Sawyer was established in June 1887.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
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.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sawyer.
1973Sawyer sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Sawyer.
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.
Between 89 and 276 people in every census since 1920.
11 censuses, 1920–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Sawyer’s Wikipedia page.
In 1886, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Sawyer’s post office opened in 1887, and the census of 1920 counted 263 people here.
One place: the Sawyer City Jail (listed 2022).
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.