Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: KudzuVine · Public domainMost of Bald Head Island was built recently: 0.2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2002. Its Register listings are the Bald Head Island Lighthouse, the Cape Fear Lighthouse Complex and the Bald Head Creek Boathouse. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1970 on, and the census since 1990.
Bald Head Island dates its founding to 1985 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1990.
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 Bald Head Island’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Bald Head Island.
Bald Head Island is tiny but has played a part in two American wars. During the American Revolution, it was home to Fort George, a British fort. During the Civil War, the same redoubts served as Fort Holmes, a Confederate base of importance to shipping and smuggling.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltBald Head Island Lighthouse is built
BuiltCape Fear Lighthouse Complex is built
In the archiveBald Head Island Life Saving Station, Bald Head Radio Beacon Plot Plan
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1950s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bald Head Island.
1970Cape Fear sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Bald Head Island.
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 Bald Head Island’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Grew from 78 people in 1990 to 268 in 2020, 3 times over.
4 censuses, 1990–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bald Head Island’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Bald Head Island itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
In 1985, according to Wikidata. the census of 1990 counted 78 people here.
Three places: the Bald Head Island Lighthouse (listed 1975), the Cape Fear Lighthouse Complex (1978) and the Bald Head Creek Boathouse (1997).
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 (4), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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.
2012
2012
2005