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History · Porcupine

Porcupine’s post office opened in 1893, and 18% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1967 on, and the census since 1990.

1893first post office
0on the National Register
18%homes built before 1940
12old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Porcupine began

When was Porcupine founded?

1893

The Porcupine post office opened in 1893, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 783 in 19902020 census: 925133 years
Founding year: the first Porcupine post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Porcupine’s past

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

Shrank, then grewLost half of its people between 1990 and 2000, then more than doubled.A town in old photos12 old photos, postcards and papers.
★ What stands out · People over time

Porcupine, census by census

02004006008001,00020002020783 in 1990Low: 407

Lost half of its people between 1990 and 2000, then more than doubled.

4 censuses, 1990–2020.

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

By decade

Porcupine, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s12 items
H.W. Caton, Teacher, Day School Number 13, Porcupine, South Dakota, to J.J. Duncan1914H.W. Caton, Teacher, Day School Number 13, Porcupine,…H.W. Caton, Teacher, Day School Number 13, Porcupine, South Dakota, to J.J. Duncan1914H.W. Caton, Teacher, Day School Number 13, Porcupine,…H.W. Caton, Teacher, Day School Number 13, Porcupine, South Dakota, to J.J. Duncan1914H.W. Caton, Teacher, Day School Number 13, Porcupine,…J.J. Duncan to Additional Farmer Charles D. Parkhurst, Porcupine, South Dakota1914J.J. Duncan to Additional Farmer Charles D. Parkhurst…J.J. Duncan to Additional Farmer Charles D. Parkhurst, Porcupine, South Dakota1914J.J. Duncan to Additional Farmer Charles D. Parkhurst…J.J. Duncan to Bertha S. Britton, Porcupine, South Dakota1914J.J. Duncan to Bertha S. Britton, Porcupine, South Da…J.J. Duncan to Byron R. Snodgrass, Day School Number 15, Porcupine, South Dakota1914J.J. Duncan to Byron R. Snodgrass, Day School Number …J.J. Duncan to Charles D. Parkhurst, Porcupine, South Dakota1914J.J. Duncan to Charles D. Parkhurst, Porcupine, South…J.J. Duncan to Charles Parkhurst, Porcupine, South Dakota1914J.J. Duncan to Charles Parkhurst, Porcupine, South Da…J.J. Duncan to H.W. Caton, Day School Number 13, Porcupine, South Dakota1914J.J. Duncan to H.W. Caton, Day School Number 13, Porc…J.J. Duncan to H.W. Caton, Teacher, Day School Number 13, Porcupine, South Dakota1914J.J. Duncan to H.W. Caton, Teacher, Day School Number…J.J. Duncan to H.W. Caton, Teacher, Day School Number 13, Porcupine, South Dakota1914J.J. Duncan to H.W. Caton, Teacher, Day School Number…
1920s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
The story so far

Porcupine, in brief

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

Porcupine (Lakota: Pȟahíŋ siŋté, 'porcupine tail') is a census-designated place (CDP) in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 925 at the 2020 census. The community most likely was named after Porcupine Butte. Porcupine has been noted for its unusual place name, and for its designation as the unofficial capital of the unrecognized Republic of Lakotah.

Its first post office opened in 1893. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,062 to 925 (-13%).

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

Timeline

Porcupine, 1893 to 2010

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1893Post officeThe Porcupine post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1914In the archiveH.W. Caton, Teacher, Day School Number 13, Porcupine, South Dakota, to J.J. Duncan
  5. 1951Born hereEdgar Bear Runner is born here
  6. 1967On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  7. 21st century
  8. 2010CensusPopulation peaks at 1,062
On the map

Porcupine on the map, 1967 to 1985

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Porcupine. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Porcupine on the 1967 USGS mapPorcupine on the 1985 USGS map1967Wounded Knee sheet · 1:24,000

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

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

H.W. Caton, Teacher, Day School Number 13, Porcupine, South Dakota, to J.J. Duncan
Retake this viewH.W. Caton, Teacher, Day School Number 13, Porcupine, South Dakota, to J.J. Duncan, 1914

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Porcupine’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Places that used to be

Old corners and burying grounds

Porcupine’s post office has been open since 1893.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Evergreen
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Porcupine
Porcupine PresbyterianSaint Albans EpiscopalSaint Julia

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

Help out

Finish Porcupine’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewH.W. Caton, Teacher, Day School Number …: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Porcupine’s history

What year was Porcupine founded?

The Porcupine post office opened in 1893, 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 Wikimedia Commons (12), 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.