Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 61% of U.S. towns · #27 of 119 in Utah. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1890 on, and the census since 1860.
Nephi dates its founding to 1851 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1860.
More historic than 61% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Nephi is more historic than 61% of U.S. towns, #27 of 119 in Utah. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Utah towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Utah town has 3.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Nephi’s 7.3 sits near the middle of its state (61% of Utah towns have fewer) while its 5 listings outnumber those of 70% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 →
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 Nephi’s history is told.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1890Sheet 1 of 7Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
The 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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Nephi.
Before the area was settled, the site along Salt Creek was first a camping place along the Old Mormon Road to Southern California. Mormon settlers established a settlement at the site in 1851, naming it after the creek. It retained that name until 1882 when the town and its post office became Nephi.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereMartin Woolf is born hereBuiltJuab County Jail is builtBuiltEdwin Robert Booth House is builtBuiltOscar M. Booth House is builtBuiltGeorge Carter Whitmore Mansion is built
In the archiveSnak Shak Café, U.S. Highway 91, north... Private parties by reservation... Nephi, Utah (…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Nephi. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Nephi.
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 Nephi’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 672 people in 1860 to 6,443 in 2020, 9 times over.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Nephi’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Nephi’s post office has been open since 1882. Another post office, Salt Creek, 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).
In 1851, according to Wikidata. Nephi’s post office opened in 1851, and the census of 1860 counted 672 people here.
Nephi is more historic than 61% of U.S. towns, #27 of 119 in Utah. 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.
5 listings: 5 buildings, among them the George Carter Whitmore Mansion (listed 1978, the first).
18% of Nephi’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.2 points), against a typical 2.8% for an Utah town; the median home was built in 1979.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (14), Wikidata (4), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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