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History · Fort McDermitt

Fort McDermitt’s post office opened in 1879

Most of Fort McDermitt was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1980.

1879first post office
0on the National Register
1%homes built before 1940
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Photo: John Stanton – CC-BY-SA (see permission; all content licensed under CC-BY-SA) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers

How Fort McDermitt began

When was Fort McDermitt founded?

1879

The Fort McDermitt post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Camp McDermitt (1866), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 267147 years
Founding year: the first Fort McDermitt post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

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

Start Fort McDermitt’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Fort McDermitt’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 so far

Fort McDermitt, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Fort McDermitt yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Fort McDermitt is a census-designated place (CDP) in Humboldt County, Nevada, United States. As of the 2020 census, Fort McDermitt had a population of 267. It overlaps the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation and lies just south of the McDermitt CDP.

Its first post office opened in 1879. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 341 to 267 (-22%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Fort McDermitt, 1866 to 1891

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1866Post officeThe Camp McDermitt post office opens
  3. 1879Post officeThe Camp McDermitt post office closes
  4. 1879Post officeThe Fort McDermitt post office opens
  5. 1891Post officeThe Fort McDermitt post office closes
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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Places that used to be

Lost post offices and places now gone

Fort McDermitt had its own post office from 1879 to 1891. Another post office, Camp McDermitt, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Camp McDermitt
1866–1879
Fort McDermitt
1879–1891
18601940today
Gone or out of use
Camp McDermit Military ReservationmilitaryFort McDermitmilitaryFort McDermitt Post Officepost office

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

Questions about Fort McDermitt’s history

What year was Fort McDermitt founded?

The Fort McDermitt post office opened in 1879, 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 →
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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 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.