Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Optima was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1991. Its Register listing is the Optima Grain Elevator. Below: maps from 1967 on and the census since 1930.
The Optima post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Optima’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1930 and 1960, then grew 5-fold.
10 censuses, 1930–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Optima’s Wikipedia page.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Optima yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Optima is a town in Texas County, Oklahoma, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town’s population was 338.
Its first post office opened in 1886. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 356 to 338 (-5%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Optima. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Optima.
The 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.
Nobody well known was born in Optima itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Optima post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Optima Grain Elevator (listed 1983).
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
