Founding year: the first Beaver post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Beaver’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Beaver is more historic than 29% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Beaver’s overall grade.
Wisconsin towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Wisconsin town has 3.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Beaver’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to C. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.1 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Beaver’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Beaver yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Beaver is a town in Marinette County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,153 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated community of Beaver is located in the town.
Its first post office opened in 1884. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 1,146 in 2010, 1,153 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Beaver, 1884 to 1984
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds
Beaver had its own post office from 1884 to 1984.
Beaver
1884–1984
18801950today
Gone or out of use
Flower Nook SchoolschoolMaple Grove SchoolschoolOak Ridge SchoolschoolPatz AirportairportReeds Hill SchoolschoolWhite Potato Lake SchoolschoolWoodrow Wilson Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Beaver
Beaver
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.
The Beaver post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Beaver rank for history?
Beaver is more historic than 29% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Beaver?
10% of Beaver’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.1 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1978.
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).
From 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.
