Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Powers

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Powers

22% of Powers’ homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1963 on and the census since 1920.

0on the National Register
22%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory

What stands out about Powers’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Powers are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 560 in 1970; 381 people lived here in 2020.Old housesHalf of Powers’ homes were built before 1959.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Powers’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Powers’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Powers, census by census

0100200300400500600192019401960198020002020Peak: 560

Peaked at 560 in 1970; 381 people lived here in 2020.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Powers’ Wikipedia page.

The story

How Powers came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Powers.

Read it all →

At an early date, the place was called "Menominee River Junction", because here was the junction between the main railroad line and the Menominee River Branch. The origin of the name "Powers" is uncertain. Several sources claim the village was named after Edward Powers, a civil engineer involved in building the railroad there. Another source claims the village was founded in 1872 and named after Tom Powers, an engineer for the Chicago & North Western Railroad.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Powers, 1936 to 1970

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 20th century
  2. 1936Born hereMike Preaseau is born here
  3. 1963On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 1970CensusPopulation peaks at 560
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

Powers on the map, 1963 to 1989

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Powers. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Powers on the 1963 USGS mapPowers on the 1989 USGS map1963Powers sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Powers.

Questions about Powers’ history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps and U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.