Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 14% of U.S. towns · #31 of 35 in South Dakota. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Chapel in the Hills. Most of Colonial Pine Hills was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1990. Below: maps from 1953 on and the census since 1990.
More historic than 14% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Colonial Pine Hills is more historic than 14% of U.S. towns, #31 of 35 in South Dakota. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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 Colonial Pine Hills’ 3.8 sits near the middle of its state (36% of South Dakota towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: our sources. 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Colonial Pine Hills’s history is told.
Peaked at 2,561 in 2000; 1,903 people lived here in 2020.
4 censuses, 1990–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Colonial Pine Hills’ Wikipedia page.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Colonial Pine Hills yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Colonial Pine Hills is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated community in Pennington County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 1,903 at the 2020 census.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 2,493 to 1,903 (-24%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
BuiltChapel in the Hills is builtEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Colonial Pine Hills. 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 Colonial Pine Hills.
The 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.
Nobody well known was born in Colonial Pine Hills itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.
Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Colonial Pine Hills is more historic than 14% of U.S. towns, #31 of 35 in South Dakota. 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.
One place: the Chapel in the Hills (listed 2012).
0.0% of Colonial Pine Hills’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 10% for a South Dakota town; the median home was built in 1990.
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 National Register of Historic Places (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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.
2016