Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: old-book passages.
The Blue River post office opened in 1837, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Blue River’s history is told.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Blue River yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Blue River is a village in Grant County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 457 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1837. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 434 to 457 (+5%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Blue River, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The Post Office. — The first attempt at supplying the inhabitants of Montfort and the surrounding country with mail facilities was during the year 1828, or thereabouts, when Daniel Durnell carried the mail from Mineral Point to Blue River, the post office at the latter point being Centerville. In time the same was changed to Montfort, where it was located under the care of D. S. Benner, it is believed, or Robert Langley. In 1854, S. D. Green succeeded to the trust, establishing the office in his store, where he continued to discharge the duties of the office until 1863. In that year, W. 0. Thomas was appointed and served two years, when Mr.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The village of Castle Rock is situated on the Fennimore Branch of Blue River in Sections 30 and 31. The nucleus of the settlement was the mill built by D. R. Sylvester about 1854. The village plat was surveyed in October, 1856, by William N. Reed, of Lancaster. D. R.
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"The valley now occupied by the river, from Mazomanie to Blue River, is very nearly that of the present line of strike of the Lower Silurian formation, and, although from there the strike of the lower members (of which outliers still remain) appears to bear rather more to the northward, yet observations on the dip of the Cincinnati group, in such occasional outliers as remain, lead us to believe that its original strike was approximately in a southwesterly direction, from Blue River to the Mississippi.
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When the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad was built a siding was made six and a half miles west of Muscoda. Some time after¬ ward it was made a flag station and called Blue River Station. In » 1865 a depot was built there. In 1862 Joseph Elliott put up a build¬ ing there which he used as a residence and store. This and the sectionhouse were then the only buildings in the place. In 1863 D. C. Perrigo bought the land immediately about the station and laid it out into
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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Blue River post office opened in 1837, 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 (3), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
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