Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 33% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: maps from 1959 on and old-book passages.
The Denver Township post office opened in 1866, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Denver (1866), Aetna (1870) and Martinsburgh (1870), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 33% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Denver Township is more historic than 33% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
Few Michigan towns list much on the Register (a typical Michigan town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Denver Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (32% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
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 →
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 Denver Township’s history is told.
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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Denver Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Denver Township is a civil township of Newaygo County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,008 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1866. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,928 to 2,008 (+4%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Denver Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Michigan and was employed four and a half years in a mill in Oakland County, and thirteen years in Grand Rapids. In the summer of 1855 he bought a grist-mill in Denver Township, this county, which he operated until the fall of 1882, and moved his family to Dayton Township, upon 100 acres of land, which he had bought in 1856, at $1.25 an acre.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In 1866 he moved into Denver Township and lo¬ cated on section 30, where he has spent an active and useful life. The first year he built a saw-mill, and in the second year laid out the town of Hespe¬ ria, which has grown to a village of 500 inhabitants.
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 SurveyWeddings 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 Denver 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 Denver Township.
Nobody well known was born in Denver Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Denver Township post office opened in 1866, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Denver Township is more historic than 33% 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.
12% of Denver Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.7 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1977.
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 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.
