Most of Box Elder was built recently: 0.8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2004. Below: maps from 1953 on and the census since 1970.
Founding year: the first Box Elder post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Box Elder’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Box Elder is more historic than 3% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
D−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Box Elder’s overall grade.
South Dakota towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical South Dakota town has 37.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Box Elder’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (15% of South Dakota towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would still be D−. The pre-1940 share (±0.9 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Box Elder’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Box Elder yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Box Elder (Lakota: čhaŋšúška; "box elder maple") is a city in Pennington and Meade Counties, South Dakota, United States. The population was 11,746 at the 2020 census, and was estimated to be 13,887 in 2024, making it the ninth-most populous city in South Dakota. Ellsworth Air Force Base lies on the northwest side of the city, and it is a suburb of Rapid City. Box Elder was named from nearby Boxelder Creek.
Its first post office opened in 1907. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 7,800 to 11,746 (+51%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Box Elder, 1892 to 1953
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Box Elder post office opened in 1907, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Box Elder rank for history?
Box Elder is more historic than 3% 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.
How old are the homes in Box Elder?
0.8% of Box Elder’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 10% for a South Dakota town; the median home was built in 2004.
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 (3), 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) 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.
2019
2017
2004
