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History · Lamont

Lamont’s post office opened in 1909, and 19% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1916 on and the census since 1920.

1909first post office
0on the National Register
19%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Lamont began

When was Lamont founded?

1909

The Lamont post office opened in 1909, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 165 in 19202020 census: 79117 years
Founding year: the first Lamont post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Lamont’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 Lamont are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Lamont’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Lamont’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 Lamont came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Lamont.

Read it all →

Lamont was officially incorporated on October 22, 1910. The town was named for former vice president of the Northern Pacific Railway, Daniel Lamont. Lamont was initially founded as a terminal of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway, a joint venture of the Jim Hill controlled railroads, Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railways. Lamont is on the Pasco-Spokane extension of the SP&S. The terminal included a depot, yard, 22 stall roundhouse and locomotive servicing facilities. These facilities included water and oil tanks for SP&S steam locomotives, and a 6 pocket coal dock for Northern Pacific Rwy steam locomotives. Crews from Spokane and Pasco would work to Lamont and lay over before working back home again. But the railroad shortly reconsidered the remote outpost of Lamont as a terminal, and when the roundhouse burned in 1913, crews started working through between Pasco and Spok…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Lamont, 1909 to 1974

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1909Post officeThe Lamont post office opens
  3. 1964On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 1974Post officeThe Lamont post office closes
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

Lamont on the map, 1964 to 1984

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

Lamont on the 1964 USGS mapLamont on the 1984 USGS map1964Lamont NW 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 Lamont.

Every building

Lamont, building by building, 1916

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 sheet.

Lamont fire insurance map, 1916, sheet 11916Sheet 1 of 2
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

People over time

Lamont, census by census

0100192019401960198020002020Peak: 165

Between 70 and 165 people in every census since 1920.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

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

Famous people

Famous people close to Lamont

Nobody well known was born in Lamont itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
John Kitzhaber35th and 37th governor of Oregon · b. 1947
Yakima CanuttAmerican rodeo rider, actor and stuntman · b. 1895
Robert OsborneAmerican film historian and actor · b. 1932
Mike LowryAmerican politician · b. 1939
Morten LauridsenAmerican composer · b. 1943
John CrawfordAmerican actor · b. 1920
Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Lamont had its own post office from 1909 to 1974.

Lamont
1909–1974
19001960today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Lamont’s history

What year was Lamont founded?

The Lamont post office opened in 1909, 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 →
Start a conversation
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), 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.