Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listings are the Kidder County Courthouse and the First Presbyterian Church of Steele. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1952 on, and the census since 1890.
Steele dates its founding to 1878 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1890.
From Wikipedia’s history of Steele.
Steele was platted in 1878 by Wilbur F. Steele, and named for him. The community got its start soon after the railroad was extended to that point. A post office has been in operation at Steele since 1880. The Kidder County Courthouse was built in 1883.
The high temperature was 121 degrees Fahrenheit in Steele, N.D. on July 6, 1936.
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 archiveMain Street
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Steele. 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 Steele.
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 Steele’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.
Between 133 and 847 people in every census since 1890.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Steele’s Wikipedia page.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
In 1878, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Steele’s post office opened in 1880, and the census of 1890 counted 133 people here.
Two places: the Kidder County Courthouse (listed 1985) and the First Presbyterian Church of Steele (2004).
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 (1), the Library of Congress (5), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.
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