Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Folsom Hotel. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1972 on, and the census since 1910.
The Folsom post office opened in 1888, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Capulien (1883), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
From Wikipedia’s history of Folsom.
Folsom gives its name to the nearby type site for the Folsom Tradition, a Paleo-Indian cultural sequence dating to between 11000 and 8000 BC. The Folsom site, about 8 miles west of the village, was excavated in 1926, and found to have been a marsh-side kill site or camp where 23 bison had been killed using distinctive tools, known as Folsom points.
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 archiveFolsom, New Mexico flood 1908
In the archiveFolsom archeological site Wild horse Arroyo before 1922
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2026Folsom, New Mexico viewed from Capulin Volcano
2026Folsom, New Mexico viewed from Capulin Volcano 2
2026Dry Cimarron River at Folsom, New Mexico looking west
2026Dry Cimarron River at Folsom, New Mexico looking east
2006Bison antiquus fossil buffalo (Upper Pleistocene; nea…
2006Bison antiquus fossil buffalo (Upper Pleistocene; nea…
2004NMMap-doton-FolsomEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Folsom. 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 Folsom.
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 Folsom’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 51 and 484 people in every census since 1910.
10 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Folsom’s Wikipedia page.
Folsom’s post office has been open since 1888. Another post office, Capulien, 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.
The Folsom post office opened in 1888, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Folsom Hotel (listed 1987).
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 (12), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
1908
1927
1927
