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History · Denio

Denio’s post office opened in 1951

Below: 1 old photo or paper and maps from 1966 on.

1951first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Denio’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Denio began

When was Denio founded?

1951

The Denio post office opened in 1951, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 3475 years
Founding year: the first Denio post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Denio’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Denio’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewThe Old Diamond Inn: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Denio came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Denio.

Read it all →

Denio was named after Aaron Denio, who settled in the area in 1885. He was born in 1824 in Illinois and traveled to California in 1860. He worked in milling, mining, and farming in Nevada and California for 25 years before settling near the Oregon-Nevada border. He died at Denio in 1907. The Denio post office was established in Oregon in 1888. After World War II a number of businesses relocated south of the state line to take advantage of Nevada's lack of an income tax and more liberal liquor, gambling, and prostitution laws. The post office was moved and reopened in Nevada in 1950 for Nevada addresses, not Oregon.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Denio, 1951 to 1976

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1951Post officeThe Denio post office opens
  3. 1966On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 1976In the archiveThe Old Diamond Inn
By decade

Denio, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1970s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1970s1 item
The Old Diamond Inn1976The Old Diamond Inn
1980s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today11 recent
2014-07-06 17 48 59 Honey locust trees in20142014-07-06 17 48 59 Honey locust trees in2014-07-06 17 48 51 Honey locust trees in20142014-07-06 17 48 51 Honey locust trees in2014-07-06 14 56 13 View south along Nevada State Route 292 (Denio Road) about 2.5 miles north of the junction with Nev…20142014-07-06 14 56 13 View south along Nevada State Rou…2014-07-06 14 54 13 View south along Nevada State Route 292 (Denio Road) at the end of Harney County Route 201 (Fields-…20142014-07-06 14 54 13 View south along Nevada State Rou…2014-07-06 14 53 38 View south along Nevada State Route 292 (Denio Road) at the end of Harney County Route 201 (Fields-…20142014-07-06 14 53 38 View south along Nevada State Rou…2014-07-06 14 53 08 View south along Nevada State Route 292 (Denio Road) at the end of Harney County Route 201 (Fields-…20142014-07-06 14 53 08 View south along Nevada State Rou…2014-07-06 14 51 51 View of Denio, Nevada from Harney County Route 201 (Fields-Denio Road) a half mile north of the Ore…20142014-07-06 14 51 51 View of Denio, Nevada from Harney…2014-07-06 14 48 42 View north at the end of Nevada State Route 292 (Denio Road) about 2.9 miles north of the junction …20142014-07-06 14 48 42 View north at the end of Nevada S…2014-07-06 14 47 08 View north along Nevada State Route 292 (Denio Road) about 2.1 miles north of the junction with Nev…20142014-07-06 14 47 08 View north along Nevada State Rou…Denio - DPLA - d54073cf780254ae25c495c426aa2e4a2013Denio - DPLA - d54073cf780254ae25c495c426aa2e4aDenio - DPLA - 2340f06d4a6fdbdf461f41f788c998762013Denio - DPLA - 2340f06d4a6fdbdf461f41f788c99876
On the map

Denio on the map, 1966 to 1990

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

Denio on the 1966 USGS mapDenio on the 1990 USGS map1966Denio sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Denio.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

The Old Diamond Inn
Retake this viewThe Old Diamond Inn, 1976

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Denio’s page.

Retake this view · +15

Questions about Denio’s history

What year was Denio founded?

The Denio post office opened in 1951, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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 (12), 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.