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History · Iraan

Iraan’s post office opened in 1928

Most of Iraan was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1969. Below: maps from 1929 on and the census since 1960.

1928first post office
0on the National Register
8%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Iraan began

When was Iraan founded?

1928

The Iraan post office opened in 1928, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 1,255 in 19602020 census: 1,05598 years
Founding year: the first Iraan post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Iraan’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 Iraan are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
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Start Iraan’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Iraan’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Iraan came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Iraan.

Read it all →

Iraan was an oil boom town, and it developed quickly after the discovery of the gigantic Yates Oil Field, which is adjacent to the town on the southwest. The oil field was discovered in 1926, and the first buildings in town were basic housing and infrastructure for workers on the field, all built by the Big Lake Oil Company, which became Plymouth Oil Company, which was purchased by the Ohio Oil Company, then purchased by Marathon Oil Company, and owned today by Kinder Morgan. By 1927, the town included a school, and the post office appeared in 1928. The population of the town in 1930 was about 1,600. About 3 mi (5 km) south of Iraan was the oil boomtown of Redbarn, which appeared almost immediately after discovery of the oil field, before Iraan itself. It was a collection of tents and shanties in the immediate vicinity of Ira Yates's ranch. Yates donated 152 acres (0.62 km2) of his ranc…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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On the map

Iraan on the map, 1929 to 1985

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

Iraan on the 1929 USGS mapIraan on the 1967 USGS mapIraan on the 1985 USGS map1929Sheffield sheet · 1:125,000

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

People over time

Iraan, census by census

02004006008001,0001,2001,4001960198020002020Peak: 1,358

Between 996 and 1,358 people in every census since 1960.

7 censuses, 1960–2020.

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

Questions about Iraan’s history

What year was Iraan founded?

The Iraan post office opened in 1928, 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 →
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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 Wikipedia, 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.