Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Ellis County Courthouse. Below: 1 old photo or paper from 1930 on.
Arnett dates its founding to 1900 (Wikidata). Its post office opened in 1902.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Arnett’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Arnett.
The townsite came about at the junction of local trading routes. A post office was established at the townsite in 1902, with William G. Brown as the postmaster. Brown is said to have named the post office Arnett after A. S. Arnett, Brown's minister from Fayetteville, West Virginia.
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.
Born hereDonald J. Gott is born here
In the archiveFor the Rest of your life, Chesnut © Lodge, Arnett, Oklahoma, east of city, on U.S. 60 an…One decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Arnett’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.
In 1900, according to Wikidata. Arnett’s post office opened in 1902.
One place: the Ellis County Courthouse (listed 1985).
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 (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
