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History · Mountain View

Mountain View’s post office opened in 1900, and 23% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1904 on and the census since 1910.

1900first post office
0on the National Register
23%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided · Public domain
Quick answers

How Mountain View began

When was Mountain View founded?

1900

The Mountain View post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 855 in 19102020 census: 740126 years
Founding year: the first Mountain View post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Mountain View’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 Mountain View are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 1,189 in 1980; 740 people lived here in 2020.Mapped building by building3 fire insurance maps, 1904 to 1916, drew every building in Mountain View.Old housesHalf of Mountain View’s homes were built before 1956.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Mountain View’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Mountain View, census by census

02004006008001,0001,200192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,189

Peaked at 1,189 in 1980; 740 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

Every building

Mountain View, building by building, 1904–1916

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.

Mountain View fire insurance map, 1904, sheet 11904Sheet 1 of 2
Edition
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

The story

How Mountain View came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Mountain View.

Read it all →

The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (Rock Island) extended a line from Chickasha to the northern part of the Kiowa, Comanche and Apache Reservation in 1899. It terminated about two miles from an existing tent city called Oakdale, consisting of a store and post office on the former Cheyenne and Arapaho Reservation. The Oakdale post office was renamed Mountain View, honoring the nearby Wichita Mountains, on October 9, 1900.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Mountain View, 1900 to 1980

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1900Post officeThe Mountain View post office opens
  3. 1961On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 1978Born hereTahnee Ahtone is born here
  5. 1980CensusPopulation peaks at 1,189
By decade

Mountain View, decade by decade

Today1 recent
OKMap-doton-MountainView2004OKMap-doton-MountainView
On the map

Mountain View on the map, 1961 to 1984

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

Mountain View on the 1961 USGS mapMountain View on the 1984 USGS map1961Carnegie 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 Mountain View.

Questions about Mountain View’s history

What year was Mountain View founded?

The Mountain View post office opened in 1900, 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 (1), 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.