Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1877.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Bandon’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bandon is more historic than 57% of U.S. towns, #40 of 142 in Oregon. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Bandon’s overall grade.
Oregon towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Oregon town has 2.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Bandon’s 12.0 sits above most of its state (74% of Oregon towns have fewer) while its 4 listings outnumber those of 68% 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 (±7.1 points). Two sources give 1873.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Bandon’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost a third of its people between 1910 and 1940, then grew 3-fold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bandon’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Bandon, building by building, 1898–1925
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.
Before 1850, the Coquille Indians lived in the area. Then in 1851, gold was discovered at nearby Whiskey Run Beach by French Canadian trappers, though the gold rush did not have much of an impact on the area. In 1852, Henry Baldwin, from County Cork, Ireland, was shipwrecked on the Coos Bay bar and walked into this area. The first permanent European settlers came in 1853 and established the present town site. In 1856, conflicts in the area arose and Indigenous Americans were sent to the Siletz Reservation. In 1859, the boat Twin Sisters sailed into the Coquille River and opened the outlet for all inland produce and resources.
In 1873, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Bandon’s post office opened in 1877, and the census of 1880 counted 175 people here.
How does Bandon rank for history?
Bandon is more historic than 57% of U.S. towns, #40 of 142 in Oregon. 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 Bandon?
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Coquille River Light (listed 1974, the first).
How old are the homes in Bandon?
13% of Bandon’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.1 points), against a typical 5.3% for an Oregon town; the median home was built in 1987.
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 (2), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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.
2016
2016
