Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Unknown photographer · Public domain5 places in town are on the National Register. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1921 on, and the census since 1870.
Columbia Falls dates its founding to 1863 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1870.
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 Columbia Falls’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Columbia Falls. 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 Columbia Falls.
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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Columbia Falls.
The town began as Township 13 SD, BPP, which was joined together with Township 12 by the Massachusetts General Court on February 8, 1796, and incorporated as Columbia. It was settled soon after the Revolutionary War. On March 25, 1863, the town was set off from Columbia and incorporated as Columbia Falls.
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.
In the archiveGeneral View of
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveRuggles House2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1970s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Columbia Falls’ page.
Retake this view · +15Between 367 and 698 people in every census since 1870.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Columbia Falls’ Wikipedia page.
Columbia Falls’s post office has been open since 1876. Another post office, Pleasant River, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1863, according to Wikidata. Columbia Falls’ post office opened in 1791, and the census of 1870 counted 608 people here.
5 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Ruggles House (listed 1970, the first).
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 (12), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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.
2012
2012
2012
2012
2012
2012
2012
2012
2009
2004