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History · Silver Lake

Silver Lake’s post office opened in 1875, and 17% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 3 old photos and papers and maps from 1968 on.

1875first post office
0on the National Register
17%homes built before 1940
3old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Silver Lake’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Silver Lake began

When was Silver Lake founded?

1875

The Silver Lake post office opened in 1875, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 159151 years
Founding year: the first Silver Lake post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Silver Lake’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 3 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Silver Lake’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewSnowshoeing-Oregon-1928: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Silver Lake came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Silver Lake.

Read it all →

The community of Silver Lake is located in the high desert of central Oregon. The town is named for a lake of the same name that is 6 miles (10 km) east of town. On December 9, 1875, the post office was established. The post office location has moved at least twice, depending on where the house of the postmaster was at the time.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Silver Lake, 1875 to 1997

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1875Post officeThe Silver Lake post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1928In the archiveSnowshoeing-Oregon-1928
  5. 1968On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1997In the archiveNewberry Volcano Map
By decade

Silver Lake, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1920s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1920s1 item
Snowshoeing-Oregon-19281928Snowshoeing-Oregon-1928
1930s–1980snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
1990s1 item
Newberry Volcano Map1997Newberry Volcano MapMap
Date unknown1 to date
Firefighters-Oregon-1933Date?Firefighters-Oregon-1933
Today3 recent
Vicinity Map with Fort Rock, Silver Lake, Stauffer, Wagontire and Riley detail, from- Christmas Valley Sand Dunes (3010…2016Vicinity Map with Fort Rock, Silver Lake, Stauffer, W…MapSilver Lake, Oregon2007Silver Lake, OregonFiretower-Silver Lake-Oregon2007Firetower-Silver Lake-Oregon
On the map

Silver Lake on the map, 1968 to 1979

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

Silver Lake on the 1968 USGS mapSilver Lake on the 1979 USGS map1968Silver Lake sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Silver Lake.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Snowshoeing-Oregon-1928
Retake this viewSnowshoeing-Oregon-1928, 1928

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Silver Lake’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Silver Lake’s post office has been open since 1875.

Gone or out of use
Red and White AirportairportSilver Lake Elementary Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Silver Lake
Silver Lake

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

Questions about Silver Lake’s history

What year was Silver Lake founded?

The Silver Lake post office opened in 1875, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

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

Town Square →
Start a conversation
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 Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, 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.