Before the railroad was built circa 1884, the area that would become Catawba was a forested wilderness cut only by rivers and Indian trails. The federal government surveyed that wilderness in 1847 and 1855. In the final years before the railroad, a little pine was logged along the river and some Swedish immigrants settled near where highway 86 crosses the south fork of the Jump River.
The name Catawba is said to come from the wine - perhaps from a crew of railroad gandy dancers who overindulged on the stuff, or perhaps from local lumberjacks who partook at a saloon in Kennan.
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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
