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History · Manila

Manila’s post office opened in 1898

Most of Manila was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1980. Below: maps from 1963 on and the census since 1910.

1898first post office
0on the National Register
5%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Manila began

When was Manila founded?

1898

The Manila post office opened in 1898, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 196 in 19102020 census: 308128 years
Founding year: the first Manila post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Manila’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 Manila are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost a third of its people between 1930 and 1950, then more than doubled.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Manila’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Manila’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

Manila, census by census

0100200300192019401960198020002020256 in 1930Low: 147

Lost a third of its people between 1930 and 1950, then more than doubled.

11 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

The story so far

Manila, in brief

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

Manila is a small town located on the northern edge of Daggett County, Utah, United States, just south of the Wyoming border. The town is at the junction of State Route 43 and State Route 44, and is the county seat of Daggett County. Nearby sites include the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area and the Flaming Gorge Reservoir just east of town, and to the south is Ashley National Forest, which includes Kings Peak (13,528 ft), the highest point in Utah. The population of Manila was 308 at the 2020 census. The settlement was named in 1898, commemorating the American naval victory at the Battle of Manila Bay in the Philippines.

Its first post office opened in 1898. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 310 in 2010, 308 in 2020.

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

Timeline

Manila, 1898 to 1963

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1898Post officeThe Manila post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1960CensusPopulation peaks at 329
  5. 1963On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Manila, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Flaming Gorge deer2009Flaming Gorge deerDaggett County Courthouse2008Daggett County Courthouse
On the map

Manila on the map, 1963 to 1996

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

Manila on the 1963 USGS mapManila on the 1996 USGS map1963Manila sheet · 1:24,000

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

Questions about Manila’s history

What year was Manila founded?

The Manila post office opened in 1898, 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 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.