Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 60% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Universal Laboratories Building. Below: maps from 1958 on and the census since 1880.
Dassel dates its founding to 1869 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1880.
More historic than 60% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Dassel is more historic than 60% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Minnesota towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Minnesota town has 2.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Dassel’s 7.4 sits above most of its state (70% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
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 →
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 Dassel’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Dassel.
Dassel was platted in 1869 and named for Bernard Dassel, a railroad official. A post office has been in operation at Dassel since 1869. Dassel was incorporated in 1878.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Dassel, cut from the printed page as they were published.
he opened a blacksmith shop, and continued to follow that calling for two years in that place. In 1866 he removed to the town of Dassel, then known as Swan Lake, and took a homestead of eighty acres of land in section 10, where his family lived nine years.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.![The village of Dassel, which is situated in this township, upon the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 27, and lot 0, of the same section, and u])on the northeast quarter of the northwest rjuarter and the west half of the northwest quarter of section 3-4, was laid out and platted…](https://images.townratings.com/story/8595/bk-5c139eafddb98dc5-l.jpg)
The village of Dassel, which is situated in this township, upon the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 27, and lot 0, of the same section, and u])on the northeast quarter of the northwest rjuarter and the west half of the northwest quarter of section 3-4, was laid out and platted Ijy the St. Paul &c Pacific Railroad in 1803, on tlie
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.
BuiltUniversal Laboratories Building is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
2025Water tower
2025Post Office
2025Picnic shelter in park on Atlantic Avenue
2025Gethsemane Lutheran Church ELCA, Dassel, Minnesota-02
2025Gethsemane Lutheran Church ELCA, Dassel, Minnesota-01
2025Commercial building
2025CIty Hall & Library
2025Businesses along Atlantic Avenue
2025Atlantic Avenue at 3rd Street
2025301 Atlantic Avenue
2025301 Atlantic Avenue, Dassel, Minnesota-02
2011Dassel, MN 2
2011Dassel, MN 1
2005MNMap-doton-DasselEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Dassel. 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 Dassel.
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.
Grew from 247 people in 1880 to 1,472 in 2020, 5 times over.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Dassel’s Wikipedia page.
Dassel’s post office has been open since 1870. Another post office, Dassel Station, 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).
In 1869, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Dassel’s post office opened in 1869, and the census of 1880 counted 247 people here.
Dassel is more historic than 60% 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.
One place: the Universal Laboratories Building (listed 1996).
20% of Dassel’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.2 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1975.
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 Wikimedia Commons (14), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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 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.
