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History · Plankinton

Plankinton’s post office opened in 1882, and 25% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listings are the Aurora County Courthouse and the Sweep Hotel.

1882first post office
2on the National Register
25%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Plankinton began

When was Plankinton founded?

1882

The Plankinton post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Merrill (1880) and Plankington (1880), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

2020 census: 781144 years
Founding year: the first Plankinton post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Plankinton’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 Plankinton are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Plankinton.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Plankinton’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Plankinton’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
Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Plankinton’s post office has been open since 1882. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Merrill
1880–1880
Plankington
1880–1882
Plankinton
1882–today
18801950today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story

How Plankinton came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Plankinton.

Read it all →

Plankinton sprang up with the arrival of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad to the area in 1880. The town was named for Milwaukee-based meatpacker and railroad official John Plankinton.

The voters approved the incorporation of Plankinton as a village in an election on September 7, 1882. The first officials were elected on September 22, 1882. The first village trustees were C. Thompson, C.C. Irons, T.C. Granger, W.H. Ferguson.

On 7 October 1897, the girls' dormitory at the State Industrial School in town burned, killing seven people.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Plankinton, 1880 to 1882

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1880Post officeThe Merrill post office opens
  3. 1880Post officeThe Merrill post office closes
  4. 1880Post officeThe Plankington post office opens
  5. 1882Post officeThe Plankington post office closes
  6. 1882Post officeThe Plankinton post office opens
By decade

Plankinton, decade by decade

Today1 recent
SDMap-doton-Plankinton2004SDMap-doton-Plankinton
On the National Register

2 historic places in Plankinton

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
2
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
2
each building in a district counts
first listed
1993
Aurora County Courthouse
Aurora County CourthouseSweep Hotel
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Art Deco1
Moderne1
Aurora County CourthouseArt Deco
Sweep HotelBuilding

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Plankinton

Nobody well known was born in Plankinton itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Chad GreenwayAmerican football player · b. 1983
J
Joshua KlumbAmerican politician, businessman, and farmer · b. 1984

Questions about Plankinton’s history

What year was Plankinton founded?

The Plankinton post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Plankinton?

Two places: the Aurora County Courthouse (listed 1993) and the Sweep Hotel (2005).

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 Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.