Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Loraine

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Loraine

Loraine’s post office opened in 1907

Below: maps from 1948 on and the census since 1920.

1907first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Andrew Filer from Seattle (ex-Minneapolis) · CC BY-SA 2.0
Quick answers

How Loraine began

When was Loraine founded?

1907

The Loraine post office opened in 1907, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 74 in 19202020 census: 9119 years
Founding year: the first Loraine post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Loraine’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 Loraine are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 92 in 1930; 9 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Loraine’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Loraine’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Loraine, census by census

0100192019401960198020002020Peak: 92

Peaked at 92 in 1930; 9 people lived here in 2020.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

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

The story so far

Loraine, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Loraine yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Loraine is a city in Renville County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 9 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Minot Micropolitan Statistical Area. Loraine was founded in 1907 and is said to have been named by Mohall banker Sherwood H. Sleeper (namesake of Sherwood) for Fort La Reine, one of the forts of the exploration directed by Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye in the 18th century.

Its first post office opened in 1907. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 9 in 2010, 9 in 2020.

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Loraine, 1907 to 1976

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1907Post officeThe Loraine post office opens
  3. 1930CensusPopulation peaks at 92
  4. 1948On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 1976Post officeThe Loraine post office closes
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

Loraine on the map, 1948 to 1980

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

Loraine on the 1948 USGS mapLoraine on the 1950 USGS mapLoraine on the 1980 USGS map1948Mohall sheet · 1:24,000

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Loraine had its own post office from 1907 to 1976.

Loraine
1907–1976
19001960today

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

Questions about Loraine’s history

What year was Loraine founded?

The Loraine post office opened in 1907, 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 →
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 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.