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History · Orogrande

Orogrande’s post office opened in 1906, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

Its Register listing is the Orogrande School. Below: maps from 1947 on.

1906first post office
1on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Orogrande began

When was Orogrande founded?

1906

The Orogrande post office opened in 1906, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Jarilla Junction (1905), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 35120 years
Founding year: the first Orogrande post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Orogrande’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 Orogrande are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Orogrande’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Orogrande came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Orogrande.

Read it all →

Originally a mining town named Jarilla Junction due to its proximity to the Jarilla Mountains, established in 1905, the town was renamed Orogrande (Spanish for big gold) in 1906 and is not far from similar mining towns (now completely abandoned ghost towns) named Brice and Ohaysi. The population soared to approximately 2000 as the result of a gold rush that occurred in 1905, but quickly collapsed almost to the point of depopulation when the gold deposits proved much less abundant than expected. There are still numerous abandoned mines in the area which fall under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management. Other land around Orogrande is part of a military reservation under the control of Fort Bliss.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Orogrande, 1905 to 1947

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1905Post officeThe Jarilla Junction post office opens
  3. 1906Post officeThe Jarilla Junction post office closes
  4. 1906Post officeThe Orogrande post office opens
  5. 1947On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Orogrande, decade by decade

Today1 recent
Soldiers of the 2nd Engineer Battalion construct a bridge for the 3rd Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment during training…2012Soldiers of the 2nd Engineer Battalion construct a br…
On the map

Orogrande on the map, 1947 to 1955

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

Orogrande on the 1947 USGS mapOrogrande on the 1955 USGS map1947Orogrande North 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 Orogrande.

On the National Register

1 historic place in Orogrande

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
2025
Orogrande School
Orogrande School
Buildings
All 1 listings
Orogrande SchoolBuilding · listed 2025

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices and places now gone

Orogrande’s post office has been open since 1906. Another post office, Jarilla Junction, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Jarilla Junction
1905–1906
Orogrande
1906–today
19001960today
Gone or out of use
Alice MinemineLittle Joe Minemine

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

Questions about Orogrande’s history

What year was Orogrande founded?

The Orogrande post office opened in 1906, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Orogrande?

One place: the Orogrande School (listed 2025).

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 Wikimedia Commons (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.