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History · Sweetwater

Sweetwater’s post office opened in 1894

Most of Sweetwater was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1985. Below: maps from 1960 on.

1894first post office
0on the National Register
9%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Photo: Jeffrey Beall · CC BY 3.0
Quick answers

How Sweetwater began

When was Sweetwater founded?

1894

The Sweetwater post office opened in 1894, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 2003.

2020 census: 102132 years
Founding year: the first Sweetwater post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 2003.The full story ↓

What stands out about Sweetwater’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 Sweetwater are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
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Start Sweetwater’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Sweetwater came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Sweetwater.

Read it all →

Named for nearby Sweetwater Creek, the town is at the junction of State Highway 30 and State Highway 152. Sweetwater originated around the time of the Cheyenne-Arapaho land opening in 1892. A post office for Sweetwater was established September 27, 1894 (current zip code 73666). By 1910, the community had an estimated population of 50, two general stores, a dry goods–grocery store, a cotton gin, and a fuel company. The residents expected the construction of a railroad through the area, but none was built, which limited further growth. The town did expand to about 100 people around the time of World War I, based on being an agricultural service center for the surrounding township, and the postmaster estimated 150 in the 1930s. However, the population started a decline even before World War II, as improved roads and automobile transportation carried business south to Erick or east to El…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Sweetwater, 1894 to 1960

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1894Post officeThe Sweetwater post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1904Born hereJack Frye is born here
  5. 1960On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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On the map

Sweetwater on the map, 1960 to 1989

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

Sweetwater on the 1960 USGS mapSweetwater on the 1989 USGS map1960Sweetwater 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 Sweetwater.

Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Sweetwater’s post office has been open since 1894.

Gone or out of use
Sweetwater Gas FieldoilfieldSweetwater Post Officepost office
1cemetery inside Sweetwater
Mulberry

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Sweetwater’s history

What year was Sweetwater founded?

The Sweetwater post office opened in 1894, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 2003.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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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 Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.