Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Clay County Courthouse. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1935 on, and the census since 1870.
Hayesville dates its founding to 1861 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1870.
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 Hayesville’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Hayesville.
This was long an area of indigenous settlement along the Hiwassee River. An earthwork platform mound was built here, likely by people of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture about 1000 CE. It would have been the center of their village.
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.
In the archiveHayesville High School in Hayesville, N.C. in the early 1900s
In the archiveFort Hembree's main building in Hayesville, NC, around 1920
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2016Picnic Table in Lake, 01-01-2016
2016High Water Risin'
2014NC69-Hayesville
2009Bob Dalsemer, square and contra dance writer and call…
2007The modern Clay County courthouse in Hayesville, N.C
2004Students in a public high school classroom in
2004NCMap-doton-Hayesville
2004Hayesville High School in Clay County, N.C
2004A high school principal shows off a newly-built class…
2004A Hayesville High School classroom in Clay County, N.…Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hayesville. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Hayesville.
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 Hayesville’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 35 people in 1870 to 461 in 2020, more than tenfold.
12 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Hayesville’s Wikipedia page.
In 1861, according to Wikidata. Hayesville’s post office opened in 1868, and the census of 1870 counted 35 people here.
One place: the Clay County Courthouse (listed 1975).
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 (12), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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.
