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History · Sturgis

Sturgis’ post office opened in 1884, and 24% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1972 on and the census since 1910.

1884first post office
0on the National Register
24%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Sturgis began

When was Sturgis founded?

1884

The Sturgis post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 321 in 19102020 census: 207142 years
Founding year: the first Sturgis post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Sturgis’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Sturgis are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 485 in 1940; 207 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Sturgis’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Sturgis’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Sturgis, census by census

0100200300400500192019401960198020002020Peak: 485

Peaked at 485 in 1940; 207 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Sturgis’ Wikipedia page.

The story so far

Sturgis, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Sturgis yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Sturgis is a town in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi. The population was 207 at the 2020 census. Sturgis annually hosts "The Rally", an all-bike motorcycle rally, also known as the Little Sturgis Rally. According to Scott Smith, former mayor of Sturgis, in 2005 around 20,000 visitors attended that year's rally. The most recent was in August 2024, there was a 2 year hiatus in 2020-2021 due to COVID-19 concerns.

Its first post office opened in 1884. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 254 to 207 (-19%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Sturgis, 1884 to 1972

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1884Post officeThe Sturgis post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1940CensusPopulation peaks at 485
  5. 1965Born hereKirby Jackson is born here
  6. 1972On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Sturgis, decade by decade

Today1 recent
Tombstone Detail2006Tombstone Detail
On the map

Sturgis on the map, 1972 to 2000

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sturgis. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Sturgis on the 1972 USGS mapSturgis on the 1984 USGS mapSturgis on the 2000 USGS map1972Sturgis sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Sturgis.

Questions about Sturgis’ history

What year was Sturgis founded?

The Sturgis post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

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 (1), 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.