Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the George Pfutzenreuter House. Below: 7 old photos and papers, maps from 1896 on, and the census since 1900.
The Hecla post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Lansing (1883) and Marna (1883), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
Hecla was named after Hekla, a stratovolcano in Iceland.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 558 in 1930; 193 people lived here in 2020.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Hecla’s Wikipedia page.
Hecla’s post office has been open since 1886. Two other post offices 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Hecla.
Hecla was platted in 1886. It was named after Hekla, a stratovolcano in Iceland. A post office has been in operation in Hecla since 1886. Hecla was the first place in South Dakota to have a soil conservation district.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereClarence Schutte is born here
In the archiveMain St
Born hereRobert Chamberlin is born hereOne decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hecla. 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 Hecla.
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 Hecla’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Hecla post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the George Pfutzenreuter House (listed 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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (2), the Library of Congress (7), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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) 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.
1910
1910
1910
1910
1910
1910
2024
2004