Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Cascade River Wayside · Photo: McGhiever · CC BY-SA 3.0More historic than 76% of U.S. towns. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register. Below: 10 old photos and papers, maps from 1954 on, and the census since 1910.
The Grand Marais post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 76% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Grand Marais is more historic than 76% 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 Grand Marais’ 27.8 sits above most of its state (88% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 5 listings outnumber those of 70% 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 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 Grand Marais.
The Ojibwe name for the area is Gichi-biitoobiig, which means "great duplicate water," "parallel body of water" or "double body of water" (like a bayou), a reference to the two bays that form this large harbor of Lake Superior.
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 archiveGrand Marais Harbor, Lake Superior, MinnesotaBuiltScott, Jim, Fishhouse is builtBuiltBally Blacksmith Shop is built
In the archivePow-wow at
In the archiveGrand Marais, Minnesota, postcard - abt 1949
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveGM Harbor - glitter 1 10-82
In the archiveSawtooths5 decades in the archive, from the 1870s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Grand Marais. 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 Grand Marais.
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 Grand Marais’ page.
Retake this view · +15Between 355 and 1,353 people in every census since 1910.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Grand Marais’ Wikipedia page.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Grand Marais post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Grand Marais is more historic than 76% 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.
5 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Lightkeeper's House (listed 1978, the first).
26% of Grand Marais’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.9 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 (10), Wikidata (2), 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.
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