Founding year: the first Dakota post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Dakota’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Dakota is more historic than 28% 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 Dakota’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 Dakota’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 (±3.7 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 Dakota’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 Dakota yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Dakota is a town, as well as an unincorporated community in Waushara County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,143 at the 2020 census. The town took its name from the community of the same name, which was platted for the community's first postmaster, Chapin M. Seeley, in 1853. It was likely named for the Dakota Territory, which was in the news at the time. The unincorporated community of Bannerman is also located in the town. Bannerman was originally named Bannerman Junction in 1901 as a stop on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. It was named for William and John Bannerman, two Scottish men who owned the area's granite company.
Its first post office opened in 1851. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,227 to 1,143 (-7%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Dakota in 1878
Passages that mention Dakota, cut from the printed page as they were published.
same time substantial growth and prosperity in the North-West. It owes its being to the opening up of the region by the Northern Pacific railway as do the other now prosperous towns along the line. Fargo is the county seat of Cass county, Dakota, situated on the west bank of the Red river and is a prominent station of the Northern Pacific railroad. The shops and engine houses of the Dakota division of the road are located here.
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.
Timeline
Dakota, 1851 to 1961
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Dakota post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Dakota rank for history?
Dakota is more historic than 28% 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 Dakota?
9% of Dakota’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.7 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1979.
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), 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.
