Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Silo was built recently: 0.4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1984. Below: maps from 1899 on and the census since 1900.
The Silo post office opened in 1893, 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 Silo’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1900 and 1980, then grew 8-fold.
7 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Silo’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Silo. 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 Silo.
From Wikipedia’s history of Silo.
The population was 246 in the territorial census in 1900, 180 in the special 1907 census at statehood, and 152 in the 1910 United States Census.
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.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Silo itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Silo had its own post office from 1893 to 1946.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Silo post office opened in 1893, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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 Wikipedia, 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.
