Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Tedder · CC BY 3.0More historic than 56% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Thomas J. Flippin House and the Clatskanie IOOF Hall. Its Register listings are the Thomas J. Flippin House and the Clatskanie IOOF Hall. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1911 on, and the census since 1890.
The Clatskanie post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1891.
Clatskanie was named for the Tlatskanai Native American tribe, and the Clatskanie River which flows through the town and empties into the Columbia River about four miles to the north.
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Clatskanie is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
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 Clatskanie’s 8.5 sits above most of its state (66% of Oregon towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost a third of its people between 1920 and 1940, then more than doubled.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Clatskanie’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Clatskanie. 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 Clatskanie.
From Wikipedia’s history of Clatskanie.
The town was originally called Bryantville after the large family who were among the first filers of Donation Land Claims in the area in 1852–1853. However, the first postmaster, Enoch Conyers, who was married to one of the Bryant daughters, changed the name to Clatskanie after the Tlatskanai Native American tribe.
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.
In the archiveSteamer GW Shaver ad 1900
Born hereMerlin F. Schneider is born here
In the archiveOregon - Cascade Locks through
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
BuiltClatskanie IOOF Hall is built
Born hereCole Escola is born here2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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.
1911Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Clatskanie’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Clatskanie’s post office has been open since 1871.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Clatskanie post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1891.
Clatskanie is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns. 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.
Two places: the Thomas J. Flippin House (listed 1979) and the Clatskanie IOOF Hall (2012).
15% of Clatskanie’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.0 points), against a typical 5.3% for an Oregon town; the median home was built in 1977.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.
1904
1904
1917