Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: the census since 1880.
Spring Lake dates its founding to 1850 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1880.
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 Spring Lake’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1880 and 1890, then grew 5-fold.
11 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Spring Lake’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Spring Lake.
Spring Lake was the birthplace of Antonga Black Hawk, the famous Ute leader. Antonga led many raids on settlements during Utah's Black Hawk War. After his death in 1870 he was buried in Spring Lake. In 1911 his body was discovered by miners, and moved to an LDS Church museum in Salt Lake City, but was later returned to Spring Lake.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Spring Lake itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Spring Lake had its own post office from 1872 to 1882.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1850, according to Wikidata. Spring Lake’s post office opened in 1872, and the census of 1880 counted 157 people here.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, 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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