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History · Reliance

Reliance’s post office opened in 1905, and 21% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1986 on and the census since 1910.

1905first post office
0on the National Register
21%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Reliance began

When was Reliance founded?

1905

The Reliance post office opened in 1905, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 192 in 19102020 census: 128121 years
Founding year: the first Reliance post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Reliance’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 Reliance are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 317 in 1920; 128 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Reliance’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Reliance’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

Reliance, census by census

0100200300192019401960198020002020Peak: 317

Peaked at 317 in 1920; 128 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

The story so far

Reliance, in brief

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

Reliance is a town in Lyman County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 128 at the 2020 census. Reliance was laid out in 1905.

Its first post office opened in 1905. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 191 to 128 (-33%).

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

Timeline

Reliance, 1905 to 1986

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1905Post officeThe Reliance post office opens
  3. 1920CensusPopulation peaks at 317
  4. 1986On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Reliance, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Reliance SD from I902016Reliance SD from I90SDMap-doton-Reliance2004SDMap-doton-Reliance
On the map

Reliance on the map in 1986

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

Reliance on the 1986 USGS map1986Chamberlain 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 Reliance.

Questions about Reliance’s history

What year was Reliance founded?

The Reliance post office opened in 1905, 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 (2), 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.