Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1900 on, and the census since 1880.
The Craig post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Craig’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Craig.
Craig was laid out in 1869. The city was named after the attorney and Missouri politician Gen. James Craig. A post office also named Craig has been in operation since 1869.
The BNSF railroad still runs trains daily through Craig on the Napier Subdivision.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Peaked at 775 in 1900; 105 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Craig’s Wikipedia page.
Passages that mention Craig, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The post office was originally called Tarkio, the name being changed in 1869, to Craig in honor of General James Craig, who was conspicuous in the building of what is now the Burlington railroad. Tarkio was about a mile northeast of the present townsite of Craig. It was quite a trading point and it was here that Christ Schultz and Robert W. Frame sold goods until Craig began to grow into a town of real proportions. The old Tarkio post office building is still standing on lands owned by George
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The town of Craig was laid out early in the fall of 1868, by the original proprietors, Robert W. Frame, Christ Shults and Samuel Ensworth. Its present population is between 600 and 700. The town was named for Gen. James Craig of St. Joseph, who was active in the building of the railroad which called the town into existence.
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.
In the archiveHigh school
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Craig.
1920Craig sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Craig.
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 year, then a sheet.
1900Sheet 1 of 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Craig’s page.
Retake this view · +15The Craig post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (2), the Library of Congress (3), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), 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.
1908
1908
2020
2004