Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 51% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Adams County Courthouse and the US Post Office-Hettinger. Below: 12 old photos and papers from 1909 on and the census since 1910.
The Hettinger post office opened in 1907, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 51% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hettinger is more historic than 51% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
North Dakota towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical North Dakota town has 2.8 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Hettinger’s 16.0 sits above most of its state (68% of North Dakota towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 1,769 in 1960; 1,074 people lived here in 2020.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Hettinger’s Wikipedia page.
3 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
From Wikipedia’s history of Hettinger.
Hettinger was founded in 1907 along the Milwaukee Road's transcontinental rail line known as the Pacific Extension. The city and its surrounding township were named by popular demand in recognition of Hettinger County, from which Adams County was created in 1907.
In 1923 a tornado struck ten miles east of Hettinger, destroying a farmstead and killing two people.
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.
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 Hettinger’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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Hettinger post office opened in 1907, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Hettinger is more historic than 51% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
Two places: the Adams County Courthouse (listed 1985) and the US Post Office-Hettinger (1989).
25% of Hettinger’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.0 points), against a typical 7.2% for a North Dakota town; the median home was built in 1965.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (2), the Library of Congress (10), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
1909
1909
1909
1909
1909
c. 1930
c. 1930
1942
1942
1942
1942
1942