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–Not graded
History · Bison

Bison’s post office opened in 1907, and 28% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Anna Carr Homestead. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1983 on, and the census since 1950.

1907first post office
1on the National Register
28%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Bison’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Bison began

When was Bison founded?

1907

The Bison post office opened in 1907, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 457 in 19502020 census: 302119 years
Founding year: the first Bison post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Bison’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 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Bison’s homes were built before 1963.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Bison’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewMain Street Bison South Dakota Postcard: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Bison came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Bison.

Read it all →

Bison was platted in 1907, and named after the American bison which were once numerous in the area. A post office has been in operation at Bison since 1907. Bison’s post office, established 1907, holds a quirky local legend: the building’s foundation stones were allegedly hauled by a team of trained bison under the direction of eccentric mailman Sir Ramisies Niblick III, a self-proclaimed ‘prairie postal baron.’ Though unverified, the tale persists in Lazy Spurr bar stories.”

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Bison, 1907 to 1983

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1907BuiltAnna Carr Homestead is built
  3. 1907Post officeThe Bison post office opens
  4. 1915In the archiveMain Street Bison South Dakota Postcard
  5. 1983On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Bison, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s1 item
Main Street Bison South Dakota Postcardc. 1915Main Street Bison South Dakota PostcardPostcard
1920s–1990snothing 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
Today3 recent
2015 Winter Road Show ~ SD Grassland Coalition20152015 Winter Road Show ~ SD Grassland CoalitionBuffalo Bison sign near Buffalo SD2006Buffalo Bison sign near Buffalo SDSDMap-doton-Bison2004SDMap-doton-Bison
On the map

Bison on the map, 1983 to 1998

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

Bison on the 1983 USGS mapBison on the 1998 USGS map1983Bison 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 Bison.

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.

Main Street Bison South Dakota Postcard
Retake this viewMain Street Bison South Dakota Postcard, c. 1915

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

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Bison

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1978
Anna Carr Homestead
Anna Carr Homestead, built 1907
Buildings
All 1 listings
Anna Carr HomesteadBuilding · listed 1978

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Bison, census by census

01002003004005001960198020002020Peak: 457

Between 302 and 457 people in every census since 1950.

8 censuses, 1950–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bison’s Wikipedia page.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Bison TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Bison’s history

What year was Bison founded?

The Bison post office opened in 1907, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Bison?

One place: the Anna Carr Homestead (listed 1978).

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 (4), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.