Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1964 on, and the census since 1910.
The Eland post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name.
Eland was named after the eland, a type of African antelope.
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 Eland’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Eland.
Eland was originally called Eland Junction, and under the latter name was platted by the railroad in 1888. It was named after the eland, a type of African antelope.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveScene
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Eland. 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 Eland.
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 Eland’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 199 and 368 people in every census since 1910.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Eland’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Eland itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Eland post office opened in 1881, 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 the Library of Congress (3), 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.
1908
1908