The story
Read it all →How Alma came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Alma.
Alma was named in commemoration of the 1854 Battle of the Alma, in the Crimean War.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
–Not graded
History · Alma
41% of Alma’s homes were built before 1940
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1889 on, and the census since 1870.
0on the National Register
41%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
2famous people
What stands out about Alma’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Alma’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Alma’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.People over time
Alma, census by census
Peaked at 1,428 in 1890; 716 people lived here in 2020.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Alma’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Alma, building by building, 1889–1910
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 year, then a sheet.
1889Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Alma in 1888
Passages that mention Alma, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Buffalo County, Wisconsin1888 · page 344Read the page →
Read the text
given by that of the road leading from the bluff east of Fountain City to the lower part of the town or village. This road was also laid out by Mr. Davis in 1871. One from the upper pftrt of the village followed 1872. In 1876 the village of Alma laid out a road of the same kind from Laue's house to the bluff, joining the old road at the boundary line between Alma and Belvidere.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Buffalo County, Wisconsin1888 · page 506Read the page →
Read the text
members of the Arion were al first, and at odd times members of the Concordia. It was at the time when I became a member of it in 1870, a numerous society, the members of which resided in the towns of Alma, Nelson and Belvidere, and some of them at the village of Alma. Its first recorded meeting was held in 1868. The central point of interest was in Mill Creek, where the meetings for practice in singing were held every Sunday, if the weather permitted the assembling of a complete choir. The.-
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.
Timeline
Alma, 1869 to 1955
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
By decade
Alma, decade by decade
Date unknown1 to date
Date?On the map
Alma on the map, 1932 to 1974
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Alma. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1932Alma sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Alma.
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.
Retake this viewUpper Mississippi River 9-Foot Channel, Lock & Dam No. 4
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Alma’s page.
Retake this view · +15Famous people
See all →2 famous people were born in Alma
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Places that used to be
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Another post office, Tell, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Hamlets and corners on the map
Tell
Gone or out of use
Alma Ridge SchoolschoolMill Creek Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Alma
Mill Creek
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
LincolnIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBelvidereIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townNelsonIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townModenaIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townGilmantonIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town
Questions about Alma’s history
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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), Wikidata (10), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.