History · Minden

Minden’s post office opened in 1906, and 10 of its places are on the National Register

More historic than 28% of U.S. towns · #13 of 42 in Nevada. What drives it

Most of Minden was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1995. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1956 on, and the census since 1990.

1906first post office

10on the National Register

1%homes built before 1940

2old photos & papers

1famous people

Add an old photo Share a memory

From Minden’s archive · credits on each photo

Quick answers

How Minden began

When was Minden founded?

1906

The Minden post office opened in 1906, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 1,441 in 19902020 census: 3,442120 years

How historic is Minden?

More historic than 28% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓

Founding year: the first Minden post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

History grade

What drives Minden’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Minden is more historic than 28% of U.S. towns, #13 of 42 in Nevada. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.

HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Minden’s overall grade.

Founding era1906, from the first post office: founded 1900–1944, an older era than 9% of U.S. townsD Homes built before 19401.1% of homes (±1.0) · typical NV town 0.3% · U.S. 8.4%D National Register10 listings, 21 historic buildings, 56.6 per 10,000 residents · typical NV town 0.0 · U.S. 2.4A

All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 28%

NewerOlder

Nevada towns of 2,500+ (42)Ahead of 71%

Few Nevada towns list much on the Register (a typical Nevada town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Minden’s 56.6 sits above most of its state (91% of Nevada towns have fewer) while its 21 historic buildings outnumber those of 80% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B−. The pre-1940 share (±1.0 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.

Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Minden’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 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Landmarks on the Register10 places on the National Register.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Minden’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Minden’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 view1940 Census Enumeration District Descri…: stand where they stood+15 Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

On the National Register

10 historic places in Minden

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

places listed

National Historic Landmarks

none yet

historic buildings protected

each building in a district counts

first listed

1978

Minden Flour Milling Company

Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Commercial3

Classical Revival2

Utilitarian2

European mill1

American mill1

Greek Revival1

Minden Flour Milling CompanyEuropean mill

Home RanchGreek Revival

Carson Valley Improvement Club HallClassical Revival

Douglas County CourthouseClassical Revival

Farmers Bank of Carson ValleyNeo-Classical Revival

Minden Butter Manufacturing CompanyUtilitarian

Minden InnNeo-Classical

Minden Wool WarehouseCommercial

All 10 listings

Farmers' Bank of Carson ValleyBuilding · listed 2000 Minden Elementary SchoolBuilding · listed 2008

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

The story

How Minden came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Minden.

Read it all →

It was founded in 1906 by Heinrich Friedrich Dangberg Jr., who named it after the town of Minden, in the German state of Prussia, which was near his father's birthplace. A large share of the first settlers were Germans. Minden was founded on company land of the Dangberg Home Ranch and Dangberg commissioned most of the town's early buildings. Minden has had a post office since 1906.

Minden sounded a "sundown siren" at 6pm almost every evening from 1917 until 2023, originally signifying that members of the Washoe Indian tribe were required to leave town by 6:30pm or face jail or fine. Douglas County fully repealed its sundown ordinance in the mid-1970s.

ChaptersUse of sundown siren and sundown town status

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Minden, 1850 to 1996

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

19th century
1850In the archive1940 Census Enumeration District Descriptions - Nevada - Douglas County - ED 3-1, ED 3-2,…
20th century
1906Post officeThe Minden post office opens
1956On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
1995In the archiveAerial view of
1996Born hereTanner Thorson is born here

By decade

Minden, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

On the map

Minden on the map, 1956 to 1982

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

1956Freel Peak 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 Minden.

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.

Retake this view1940 Census Enumeration District Descriptions - Nevada - Douglas County - ED 3-1, ED 3-2, ED 3-3, 1850

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

Retake this view · +15

People over time

Minden, census by census

Grew from 1,441 people in 1990 to 3,442 in 2020.

4 censuses, 1990–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Minden’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Places now gone

Minden’s post office has been open since 1906.

Gone or out of use

Desert StationlocaleMinden Rest Arealocale

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Gardnerville7 historic placesC⁺

Questions about Minden’s history

What year was Minden founded?

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

How does Minden rank for history?

Minden is more historic than 28% of U.S. towns, #13 of 42 in Nevada. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

What is on the National Register in Minden?

10 listings: 10 buildings, among them the Minden Flour Milling Company (listed 1978, the first). 21 historic buildings in all.

How old are the homes in Minden?

1% of Minden’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.0 points), against a typical 0.3% for a Nevada town; the median home was built in 1995.

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).

From Wikimedia Commons (23), the National Register of Historic Places (10), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.

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