Founding year: the first Kingfisher post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Kingfisher’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Kingfisher is more historic than 61% of U.S. towns, #35 of 131 in Oklahoma. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Kingfisher’s overall grade.
Oklahoma towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Oklahoma town has 5.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Kingfisher’s 11.9 sits above most of its state (69% of Oklahoma towns have fewer) while its 6 listings outnumber those of 72% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.4 points). 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 Kingfisher’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Kingfisher. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1892Kingfisher sheet · 1:125,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Kingfisher.
Every building
Kingfisher, building by building, 1894–1915
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
Kingfisher came into existence on April 22, 1889, when land owned by the federal government was opened to settlement by "land run". A huge area in what is now central Oklahoma was literally "peopled" by non-Native Americans overnight. The city is situated on a part of the Chisholm Trail, over which millions of Texas longhorns were driven to railheads in Kansas in the years immediately following the Civil War. Extension of the railroads and settlement of the open range ended this colorful era.
The town was named for an early resident who several landmarks were named for, a man named King Fisher.
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.
The Kingfisher post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Kingfisher rank for history?
Kingfisher is more historic than 61% of U.S. towns, #35 of 131 in Oklahoma. 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 Kingfisher?
6 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Seay Mansion (listed 1971, the first), 1 site, and 1 structure.
How old are the homes in Kingfisher?
16% of Kingfisher’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.4 points), against a typical 7.0% for an Oklahoma town; the median home was built in 1974.
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 (10), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (6), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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