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History · Richland Springs

Richland Springs’ post office opened in 1877

Most of Richland Springs was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1973. Below: maps from 1930 on and the census since 1930.

1877first post office
0on the National Register
9%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Quick answers

How Richland Springs began

When was Richland Springs founded?

1877

The Richland Springs post office opened in 1877, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 492 in 19302020 census: 244149 years
Founding year: the first Richland Springs post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Richland Springs’ 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 Richland Springs are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 584 in 1950; 244 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Richland Springs’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Richland Springs’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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People over time

Richland Springs, census by census

010020030040050060019401960198020002020Peak: 584

Peaked at 584 in 1950; 244 people lived here in 2020.

10 censuses, 1930–2020.

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

The story

How Richland Springs came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Richland Springs.

Read it all →

Richland Springs developed in the 19th century as a supply and processing center for local cotton growers and cattlemen. Jackson J. Brown and his family settled near the springs on Richland Springs Creek (then known as Richland Creek) in December 1854 and were soon followed by the Tankersley and Duncan families. A private fort, Fort Duncan, was established near the springs in the late 1850s when trouble arose with Indians on the frontier, but it apparently fell into disuse shortly thereafter. The Brown School was constructed in 1868 and named for the neighborhood's original settler. The area attracted settlers through the 1870s, and in 1877, a Richland Springs post office opened in the store of Samuel E. Hays.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Richland Springs, 1877 to 1950

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1877Post officeThe Richland Springs post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1930On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 1936Born hereJ. D. Smith is born here
  6. 1950CensusPopulation peaks at 584
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

Richland Springs on the map, 1930 to 1979

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

Richland Springs on the 1930 USGS mapRichland Springs on the 1948 USGS mapRichland Springs on the 1950 USGS mapRichland Springs on the 1979 USGS map1930Richland Springs sheet · 1:62,500

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

Questions about Richland Springs’ history

What year was Richland Springs founded?

The Richland Springs post office opened in 1877, 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, 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.