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History · Moccasin

Moccasin’s post office opened in 1896

Most of Moccasin was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1974. Below: maps from 1970 on.

1896first post office

0on the National Register

5%homes built before 1940

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Photo: J.B. Chandler · CC BY-SA 3.0

Quick answers

How Moccasin began

When was Moccasin founded?

1896

The Moccasin post office opened in 1896, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 23130 years

Founding year: the first Moccasin post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Moccasin’s 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 Moccasin are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.

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Start Moccasin’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

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The story

How Moccasin came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Moccasin.

Read it all →

The name of the town is taken from a nearby mountain range called the Moccasin Mountain range. The name of the mountains come from the look with densely forested lodge pole pine trees; the Native Americans thought they looked like moccasins, thus giving the mountains and the town a name.

Moccasin has also been hit hard by devastating wildfires that struck the area in 1916, 1919, 1922, and 1955. The town never really recovered from the fires, which burned an entire block of buildings.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Moccasin, decade by decade

Today12 recent

2007Moccasin, Montana

2007Moccasin, Montana (2007)

On the map

Moccasin on the map in 1970

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Moccasin.

1970Moccasin 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 Moccasin.

Places that used to be

Places now gone

Moccasin’s post office has been open since 1896.

Gone or out of use

Moccasin Schoolschool

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Moccasin’s history

What year was Moccasin founded?

The Moccasin post office opened in 1896, 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 (12), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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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