Most of Silver Bay was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1957. Below: maps from 1954 on and the census since 1960.
Founding year: the first Silver Bay post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Silver Bay’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Silver Bay is more historic than 3% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
D−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Silver Bay’s overall grade.
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 Silver Bay’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (23% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D− to D. The pre-1940 share (±1.6 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Silver Bay’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The city of Silver Bay was founded on May 1, 1954, after previously being known as the Beaver Bay housing project. The company town was built to process taconite mined and shipped by train from Babbitt, Minnesota, 60 miles to the northwest.
Silver Bay attained widespread publicity in the 1960s when it was discovered that the Reserve Corporation was dumping taconite tailings into Lake Superior. In 1972, they were forced to stop and charged with violating the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, which prohibited the dumping of harmful materials into interstate waters. In 1977, after a long trial, a new waste-storage facility was built 7 miles inland. It is often referred to as “Mile Post 7".
The Silver Bay post office opened in 1954, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Silver Bay rank for history?
Silver Bay is more historic than 3% 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.
How old are the homes in Silver Bay?
2% of Silver Bay’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.6 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1957.
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), 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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