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History · Kief

Kief dates to 1908, and 100% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1929 on and the census since 1920.

1908founded
0on the National Register
100%homes built before 1940
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Photo: Andrew Filer from Seattle (ex-Minneapolis) · CC BY-SA 2.0
Quick answers

How Kief began

When was Kief founded?

1908

Kief dates its founding to 1908 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1920.

First census: 307 in 19202020 census: 8118 years
Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1909.The full story ↓

What stands out about Kief’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 Kief are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Kief’s collection

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

From Wikipedia’s history of Kief.

Read it all →

Kief was founded in 1908 as a station along the Soo Line Railroad. The city was named by Black Sea German settlers after the city of Kiev in the Russian Empire (present-day Kyiv, Ukraine). A post office was established in 1909 and the town was later incorporated as a village in 1916. It achieved a peak population of 307 in 1920. It became a city in 1967, after the North Dakota Legislature enacted legislation that eliminated all existing incorporation titles for towns and villages in the state.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Kief, 1908 to 1929

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1908
    FoundingKief is established
  3. 1909Post officeThe Kief post office opens
  4. 1929On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Kief, decade by decade

Today12 recent
Kief, North Dakota2008Kief, North DakotaKief, North Dakota 10-17-20082008Kief, North Dakota 10-17-2008Kief, North Dakota2008Kief, North DakotaKief, North Dakota2008Kief, North DakotaKief, North Dakota2008Kief, North DakotaKief, North Dakota2008Kief, North DakotaKief, North Dakota2008Kief, North DakotaKief, North Dakota2008Kief, North DakotaKief, North Dakota2008Kief, North DakotaKief, North Dakota2008Kief, North DakotaKief, North Dakota2008Kief, North DakotaNDMap-doton-Kief2004NDMap-doton-Kief
On the map

Kief on the map, 1929 to 1958

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Kief. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Kief on the 1929 USGS mapKief on the 1958 USGS map1929Balfour sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Kief.

People over time

Kief, census by census

0100200300192019401960198020002020Peak: 307

Between 8 and 307 people in every census since 1920.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Kief’s Wikipedia page.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Land Township1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Kief’s history

What year was Kief founded?

In 1908, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Kief’s post office opened in 1909, and the census of 1920 counted 307 people here.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
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, 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.