Founding year: the first Winner post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Winner’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Winner is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns, #23 of 35 in South Dakota. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Winner’s overall grade.
South Dakota towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical South Dakota town has 37.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Winner’s 3.4 sits below most of its state (35% of South Dakota towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.6 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Winner’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Winner yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Winner is a city in central Tripp County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 2,921 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Tripp County. Winner also serves as the administrative center of neighboring Todd County, which does not have its own county seat. The nearest airport is Winner Regional Airport. Winner was laid out in 1909, and named for the fact the town had emerged the "winner" as the county's most successful trading point.
Its first post office opened in 1909. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 2,897 in 2010, 2,921 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Winner, 1909 to 1986
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Winner post office opened in 1909, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Winner rank for history?
Winner is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns, #23 of 35 in South Dakota. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Winner?
One place: the Tripp County Veteran's Memorial (listed 2009).
How old are the homes in Winner?
25% of Winner’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.6 points), against a typical 10% for a South Dakota town; the median home was built in 1967.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
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