Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1887.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Ironwood’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Ironwood is more historic than 83% of U.S. towns, #118 of 701 in Michigan. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Ironwood’s overall grade.
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 Ironwood’s 12.0 sits above most of its state (84% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 6 listings outnumber those of 72% 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 (±6.9 points). Two sources give 1885.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Ironwood’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 15,739 in 1920; 5,045 people lived here in 2020.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Ironwood’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Ironwood, building by building, 1888–1921
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.
Ironwood was settled in the spring of 1885. The town was incorporated as a village in 1887 and as a city on April 8, 1889. The township area north of the city was incorporated as Ironwood Township on April 8, 1889. In 1890 the population of Ironwood passed 7,500 and in 1900 it reached 10,000. Ironwood reputedly acquired its name when Frederic W. Rhinelander, president of the Milwaukee Lake Shore and Western Railroad line, arriving by train at what was then little more than a wilderness camp, chose it to honor one of his employees, mining captain James (Iron) Wood. "Ironwood" is also a colloquial name for Ostrya virginiana, a common hardwood tree in the Upper Midwest.
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.
In 1885, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Ironwood’s post office opened in 1887, and the census of 1890 counted 7,745 people here.
How does Ironwood rank for history?
Ironwood is more historic than 83% of U.S. towns, #118 of 701 in Michigan. 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 Ironwood?
6 listings: 6 buildings, among them the Memorial Building (listed 1980, the first).
How old are the homes in Ironwood?
49% of Ironwood’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.9 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1941.
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 (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (6), 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 and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
c. 1905
1906
