Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 36% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1951 on, and the census since 1900.
The Cameron post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 36% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cameron is more historic than 36% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 Cameron’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.
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 →
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 Cameron’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Cameron.
A post office called Cameron has been in operation since 1882.
The village was named for Angus Cameron, a United States Senator from Wisconsin.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Cameron, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The first schoolhouse in Cameron was a frame building erected in “old Cameron" In 1882, which was mored to the present village in the spring of 1884, when the “Soo” railroad came through, being placed on the lot south of that on which the Catholic Church now stands. After being in use for about ten years a new and larger building
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
His next work was at Lawrence, Kansas, where he went in 1865 to get out square timber for the Union Pacific. In the summer of 1866 he was at Kansas City, Mo., hewing square timbers for the first railroad bridge built across the Missouri River at that point. Then for a time, with headquarters at Cameron, Mo., he repaired bridges along the line of the Hannibal & St. Joseph. In 1868 he came to St. Paul, and worked for a while as a carpenter. Then he entered the employ of Knapp, Stout & Co. at Menomonie, this state. In their employ he came to Rice Lake. In the spring of 1871 he squatted on a piece of railroad
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveBird's eye view of Cameron, Wis
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cameron. 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 Cameron.
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 Cameron’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 394 people in 1900 to 1,872 in 2020, 4 times over.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cameron’s Wikipedia page.
The Cameron post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Cameron is more historic than 36% 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.
16% of Cameron’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 1977.
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).
From the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, 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 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.
