Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Chief Joseph Memorial. Most of Nespelem Community was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1980. Below: maps from 1950 on and the census since 1990.
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 Nespelem Community’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Nespelem Community yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Nespelem Community is a census-designated place (CDP) in on the Colville Indian Reservation in Okanogan County, Washington, United States. The population was 283 at the 2020 census.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 253 to 283 (+12%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Nespelem Community. 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 Nespelem Community.
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.
Between 253 and 291 people in every census since 1990.
4 censuses, 1990–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Nespelem Community’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Nespelem Community itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
One place: the Chief Joseph Memorial (listed 1974).
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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.
