Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Kadoka was built recently: 10% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1973. Its Register listings are the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad Depot, the Mt. Moriah Masonic Lodge #155 and the Pearl Hotel. Below: 4 old photos and papers from 1910 on.
The Kadoka post office opened in 1906, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Kadoka’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Kadoka.
Kadoka got its start in 1906 when the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad was extended to that point. The name "Kadoka" was chosen via a corruption of the Lakota language word "Oȟlóka," transl. opening or hole, due to its proximity to the Badlands National Park's wall. The town was designated county seat of the newly formed Jackson County in 1915.
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.
3 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Kadoka’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.
Kadoka’s post office has been open since 1906.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Kadoka post office opened in 1906, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Three places: the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad Depot (listed 1986), the Mt. Moriah Masonic Lodge #155 (2004) and the Pearl Hotel (2007).
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 (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
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2004