Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns · #19 of 142 in Oregon. What drives it
13 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district. Below: 20 old photos and papers, maps from 1898 on, and the census since 1880.
Klamath Falls first appears in the census in 1880. Another post office, Linkville (1871), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Klamath Falls is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #19 of 142 in Oregon. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds 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 Klamath Falls’ 6.8 sits near the middle of its state (61% of Oregon towns have fewer) while its 15 historic buildings outnumber those of 78% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first census (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.
4 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1941Klamath Falls, Oregon
1941Farm Security Administration camp. Klamath Falls, Ore…
1942Klamath Falls, Oregon. Picnickers
1942Klamath Falls, Oregon. Circus day
1942Klamath Falls, Oregon. Circus day
1942Klamath Falls, Oregon. Barber shop
1942Klamath Falls, Oregon. Railroad underpass. Klamath Fa…
1942Klamath Falls, Oregon. Residential section. Klamath F…
1942Klamath Falls, Oregon. At the circus
1942Klamath Falls, Oregon. Picnickers in city park
1942Klamath Falls, Oregon. Sign of telephone company
1942Klamath Falls, Oregon. Sideshow at the cicus
1942Klamath Falls, Oregon. Carnival of the circusThe 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.
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.
1898Sheet 1 of 3Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Klamath Falls.
At its founding in 1867, Klamath Falls was named Linkville. The name was changed to Klamath Falls in 1892–93. The name Klamath () may be a variation of the descriptive native for "people" (in Chinookan) used by the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau to refer to the region.
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.
BuiltWarren Mills House is built
Born hereRalph Hill is born here
In the archiveKlamath Falls, Oregon 1909 Panoramic photographs Library of Congress Digital ID pan 6a087…
In the archiveLake EwaunaBuiltKlamath Falls City Hall is builtBuiltKlamath Falls City Library, Old is built
Born hereDon Pedro Colley is born here
In the archiveRailroad, outskirts of fast growing town. Klamath Falls, OregonIn the archiveKlamath Falls, Oregon
Born hereSharron Angle is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Klamath Falls. 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 Klamath Falls.
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 Klamath Falls’ page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 250 people in 1880 to 21,813 in 2020, more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Klamath Falls’ Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Klamath Falls’s post office has been open since 1892. Another post office, Linkville, opened and closed inside today’s town.
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.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Klamath Falls post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1905.
Klamath Falls is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #19 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.
13 listings: 12 buildings, among them the Baldwin Hotel (listed 1973, the first), and 1 historic district, the Linkville Pioneer Cemetery,. 15 historic buildings in all.
29% of Klamath Falls’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.0 points), against a typical 5.3% for an Oregon town; the median home was built in 1965.
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 (1), the Library of Congress (19), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (13), 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.
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