Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1954 on and the census since 1880.
Spangle dates its founding to 1872 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). 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 Spangle’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Spangle.
Spangle was first settled in 1872 by William Spangle, an Illinois Civil War veteran who served in the army of General Tecumseh Sherman. He bought out the claim of an earlier squatter and established a stage station, a post office, and a blacksmith shop. The townsite was platted in 1879. It was incorporated in 1888.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Spangle, cut from the printed page as they were published.
t}' days. He came to Colfax in August, and in September Uj Spokane. He located one hundred and sixty acres of land near the town of Spangle and went to work at his trade. In 1882 he entered the ministry of the United Brethren church and served in that work for three years. Later he became a contractor and builder and then entered tlie real
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The town of Spangle is located some eighteen or twenty miles south of Spokane and about three miles north of the divide whence the drainage is southward into the Palouse river. It is on the northern boundary of the great Palouse wheat belt. The country around is almost level and fringed with timber on the north. The supply of water at a depth of from
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings 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 Spangle. 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 Spangle.
Between 36 and 331 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Spangle’s Wikipedia page.
In 1872, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Spangle’s post office opened in 1879, and the census of 1880 counted 36 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 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 old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
