Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listings are the Hilton House and the Hofmeister House. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1986 on, and the census since 1890.
The White Lake post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Windsor (1881) and Yorktown (1882), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
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 White Lake’s history is told.
Peaked at 610 in 1920; 394 people lived here in 2020.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on White Lake’s Wikipedia page.
White Lake’s post office has been open since 1882. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of White Lake yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
White Lake is a city in western Aurora County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 394 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1882. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 372 to 394 (+6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveWhite Lake SD - 1918
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of White Lake.
1986Mitchell sheet · 1:100,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of White Lake.
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 White Lake’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.
The White Lake post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Two places: the Hilton House (listed 2000) and the Hofmeister House (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 (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (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.
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