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History · Tampico

Tampico’s post office opened in 1884

Most of Tampico was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1988. Below: 1 old photo or paper and maps from 1899 on.

1884first post office
0on the National Register
9%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Tampico’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Tampico began

When was Tampico founded?

1884

The Tampico post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 467142 years
Founding year: the first Tampico post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Tampico’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 18994 editions of the USGS map, 1899 to 1985. Watch Tampico change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Tampico’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Tampico’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewSt. Joseph's Mission, Ahtanum Valley: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
On the map

Tampico on the map, 1899 to 1985

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

Tampico on the 1899 USGS mapTampico on the 1901 USGS mapTampico on the 1971 USGS mapTampico on the 1985 USGS map1899Ellensburg sheet · 1:125,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Tampico.

The story

How Tampico came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Tampico.

Read it all →

The community was named Tampico by pioneer cattleman A. D. Elgin, for a town in Mexico where he once lived. Early pioneers settled in Tampico by at least 1872. By 1887, there were from 16 to 20 families living in the community.

Chief Kamiakin—who led the Yakama, Palouse, and Klickitat in the Yakima War—was born at Ahtanum Creek near Tampico in 1800. Near that site, St. Joseph's Mission was built in 1852, to be subsequently destroyed and rebuilt more than once; services are still regularly performed there.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Tampico, 1884 to 1907

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1884Post officeThe Tampico post office opens
  3. 1899On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 20th century
  5. 1907Post officeThe Tampico post office closes
By decade

Tampico, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
St. Joseph's Mission, Ahtanum ValleyDate?St. Joseph's Mission, Ahtanum Valley
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

St. Joseph's Mission, Ahtanum Valley
Retake this viewSt. Joseph's Mission, Ahtanum Valley

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Tampico’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Tampico had its own post office from 1884 to 1907.

Tampico
1884–1907
18801950today

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

Questions about Tampico’s history

What year was Tampico founded?

The Tampico post office opened in 1884, 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 the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.