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History · Mellette

Mellette’s post office opened in 1881, and 31% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1893 on and the census since 1890.

1881first post office
0on the National Register
31%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Mellette began

When was Mellette founded?

1881

The Mellette post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 241 in 18902020 census: 199145 years
Founding year: the first Mellette post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Mellette’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Mellette are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 507 in 1920; 199 people lived here in 2020.Mapped building by building5 fire insurance maps, 1893 to 1921, drew every building in Mellette.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Mellette’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Mellette, census by census

01002003004005001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 507

Peaked at 507 in 1920; 199 people lived here in 2020.

14 censuses, 1890–2020.

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

Every building

Mellette, building by building, 1893–1921

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.

Mellette fire insurance map, 1893, sheet 11893Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

The story so far

Mellette, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Mellette yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Mellette is a city in Spink County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 199 at the 2020 census. Mellette was laid out in 1881, and named in honor of Governor Arthur C. Mellette.

Its first post office opened in 1881. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 210 to 199 (-5%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Mellette, 1881 to 1985

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1881Post officeThe Mellette post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1920CensusPopulation peaks at 507
  5. 1985On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

Mellette on the map in 1985

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Mellette.

Mellette on the 1985 USGS map1985Aberdeen sheet · 1:100,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Mellette.

Questions about Mellette’s history

What year was Mellette founded?

The Mellette post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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 U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.