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History · Great Bend

Great Bend’s post office opened in 1888, and 50% of its homes were built before 1940

1888first post office
0on the National Register
50%homes built before 1940
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Photo: Andrew Filer from Seattle (ex-Minneapolis) · CC BY-SA 2.0
Quick answers

How Great Bend began

When was Great Bend founded?

1888

The Great Bend post office opened in 1888, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Berlin (1875), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

2020 census: 49138 years
Founding year: the first Great Bend post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Great Bend’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 Great Bend are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Great Bend’s homes were built before 1945.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Great Bend’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Great Bend’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 Great Bend came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Great Bend.

Read it all →

Great Bend was founded in 1888 on land homesteaded by George Worner (1855 – 1950), who was born in Germany and moved to Brandenburg Township in 1874 when his family moved there from Wisconsin. In 1875, Worner established a rural post office and named it Berlin after the German capital. The post office was moved closer to Great Bend in 1882, and disbanded on July 12, 1883. Worner, who was instrumental in the town's founding and development, served as one of the area's first station agents for the Northern Pacific Railroad, operated the town's first general store, and was one of its first postmasters. He later served in the North Dakota House of Representatives.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Great Bend, 1875 to 1975

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1875Post officeThe Berlin post office opens
  3. 1883Post officeThe Berlin post office closes
  4. 1888Post officeThe Great Bend post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1975Post officeThe Great Bend post office closes
By decade

Great Bend, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Great Bend, North Dakota 8-1-20092009Great Bend, North Dakota 8-1-2009NDMap-doton-GreatBend2004NDMap-doton-GreatBend
Places that used to be

Lost post offices and burying grounds

Great Bend had its own post office from 1888 to 1975. Another post office, Berlin, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Berlin
1875–1883
Great Bend
1888–1975
18701950today
1cemetery inside Great Bend
Zion United Methodist

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

Questions about Great Bend’s history

What year was Great Bend founded?

The Great Bend post office opened in 1888, 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 (2), 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.