Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 3 old photos and papers and maps from 1965 on.
The Argonne post office opened in 1921, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Vanzile (1888) and North Crandon (1892), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
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 Argonne’s history is told.
Argonne’s post office has been open since 1921. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia’s history of Argonne.
Argonne was originally named Van Zile after Abraham Van Zile, who platted the area in 1888. A post office was established a year later. The town's name was changed to North Crandon in 1892 and later to Argonne—after the French Forest of Argonne—in 1929 to honor veterans of World War I.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveSOO depot at Argonne, WI in October 1963
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1960s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Argonne. 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 Argonne.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Argonne’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Argonne itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Argonne post office opened in 1921, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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 Wikimedia Commons (6), 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.
1963
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2017
2016
2004
