Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1897 on and the census since 1880.
The Roca post office opened in 1876, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Roca’s history is told.
Lost half of its people between 1890 and 1990, then more than doubled.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Roca’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Roca. 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 Roca.
From Wikipedia’s history of Roca.
The population of Roca in 1890 was 190, the highest it has been before the present day. The post office was established September 22, 1894. When the town was platted in 1876, the citizens wished to choose a name, which would suggest the chief industry in the area, stone quarrying. Roca is the Spanish word for stone.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Roca, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Davison with being the third settler. This we are quite sure is a mistake, for we were at Mr. Davison's house on Salt creek as late as the autumn of 1861, a little to the south-west of the present town of Roca. Mr. Davison opened his old Camden ranch in the fall of 1862. James West located in 1860, near his brother Thomas ; and Orin Johnson as early as 1 860.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyThe Roca post office opened in 1876, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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 (2), Wikipedia, 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 old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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