Founding year: the first Cole Camp post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Cole Camp’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cole Camp is more historic than 87% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Cole Camp’s overall grade.
Missouri towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Missouri town has 2.4 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Cole Camp’s 265 sits above most of its state (96% of Missouri towns have fewer) while its 38 historic buildings outnumber those of 83% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B+ to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.6 points). 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 Cole Camp’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Cole Camp was laid out in 1857. It became a Flag Stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail route that next year. Tipton was an eastern terminus of the when it was launched in 1858. The route was connected to St. Louis by the Pacific Railroad. The Butterfield Overland Mail Route ran in the 1858-1861 Period before the American Civil War. The first postmaster of Cole Camp was Ezekiel Williams, Sr., appointed February 26, 1839. The city most likely was named after pioneer Captain Stephen Cole.
Passages that mention Cole Camp, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A sketch of the history of Benton County, Missouri1876 · page 21Read the page →
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The first house in Cole Camp town was built by Hosea Powers. Previous to 1839, in what year I have not determined, he was moving west, without any plan as to where he should locate.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A sketch of the history of Benton County, Missouri1876 · page 15Read the page →
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Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. It was regularly located and cut out to the legal width by act of March 7, 1835. The Old Harmony Mission road, leaving the Boonville and Springfield road near Cole Camp, and running through the northern part of the County, was probably traveled before Benton County was settled, the Mission having been established in 1821 by missionaries fi*om New York, who went up the Osage in keel boats.
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.
Timeline
Cole Camp, 1839 to 1901
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.
1913Sheet 1 of 1
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
People over time
Cole Camp, census by census
Between 648 and 1,121 people in every census since 1900.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cole Camp’s Wikipedia page.
Questions about Cole Camp’s history
What year was Cole Camp founded?
The Cole Camp post office opened in 1839, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Cole Camp rank for history?
Cole Camp is more historic than 87% 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.
What is on the National Register in Cole Camp?
Two places: the Central Cole Camp Historic District (listed 2002) and the Augustus Sander House (2004).
How old are the homes in Cole Camp?
15% of Cole Camp’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.6 points), against a typical 8.4% for a Missouri town; the median home was built in 1968.
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 (4), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
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