Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 41% of U.S. towns · #12 of 23 in North Dakota. What drives it
Most of Williston was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2003. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1907 on, and the census since 1890.
The Williston post office opened in 1887, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Little Muddy (1878), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 41% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Williston is more historic than 41% of U.S. towns, #12 of 23 in North Dakota. Its National Register listings hold 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 Williston’s 2.1 sits near the middle of its state (46% of North Dakota towns have fewer) while its 6 listings outnumber those of 72% 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.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.
★ Landmark
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1907Sheet 1 of 3Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
From Wikipedia’s history of Williston.
Founded in 1887, Williston was named for Daniel Willis James, a merchant and capitalist, by his friend, railroad magnate James J. Hill.
In 1907 Williston was the site of a rolling cyclone that killed 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.
In the archive1940 Census Enumeration District Maps - North Dakota - Williams County
In the archiveFort Buford Military Reservation, North Dakota and Montana
In the archiveFreighting on the Missouri River atBuiltCreaser Building is built
Born hereSally Fraser is born here
Born hereDarlene Hooley is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyBuiltFort Union Trading Post National Historic Site Historic District is built
Born hereBrian Qvale is born here3 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Williston. 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 Williston.
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 Williston’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 295 people in 1890 to 29,160 in 2020, more than tenfold.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Williston’s Wikipedia page.
Williston’s post office has been open since 1887. Another post office, Little Muddy, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
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 Williston post office opened in 1887, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Williston is more historic than 41% of U.S. towns, #12 of 23 in North Dakota. 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.
6 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Old US Post Office (listed 1979, the first), and 1 site.
7% of Williston’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.2 points), against a typical 7.2% for a North Dakota town; the median home was built in 2003.
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 (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1914
1914
