Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 35% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Most of Pequot Lakes was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1992. Its Register listings are the H. H. Broach House, the Cole, A.L., Memorial Building and the Pequot Fire Lookout Tower. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1959 on, and the census since 1910.
The Pequot Lakes post office opened in 1940, the earliest record of the town by name.
Pequot Lakes was named by a postal official for the first Indian-sounding name he thought of, which is the name of a tribe of Algonquian Indians in eastern Connecticut.
More historic than 35% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Pequot Lakes is more historic than 35% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold 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 Pequot Lakes’ 19.2 sits above most of its state (83% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 4 historic buildings outnumber those of 68% 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 Pequot Lakes’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Pequot Lakes.
Pequot Lakes was platted in March 1900. It was named by a postal official for the first Indian-sounding name he thought of, which is the name of a tribe of Algonquian Indians in eastern Connecticut. A post office was established at Pequot Lakes in 1896.
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Pequot Lakes.
1959Nisswa sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Pequot Lakes.
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 260 people in 1910 to 2,395 in 2020, 9 times over.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Pequot Lakes’ Wikipedia page.
Pequot Lakes’s post office has been open since 1940.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Pequot Lakes post office opened in 1940, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Pequot Lakes is more historic than 35% 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.
Three places: the H. H. Broach House (listed 1980), the Cole, A.L., Memorial Building (2004) and the Pequot Fire Lookout Tower (2017).
7% of Pequot Lakes’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.4 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1992.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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) 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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