Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 50% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: maps from 1978 on and old-book passages.
More historic than 50% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Humboldt is more historic than 50% 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 Humboldt’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: our sources. 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 Humboldt’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Humboldt yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Humboldt is a town in Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 1,299 at the 2020 census. The community name was chosen by Henry Fontaine.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 1,311 in 2010, 1,299 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Humboldt, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Robert R. Campbell received his education in the Bay Settlement, where he attended school until seventeen years of age and then engaged in teaching in a district school in Humboldt township. On the 16th of October, 1 86 1, when eighteen years of age, he enlisted for three years in the Green Bay Light Guards, which at Madison was assigned to the Twelfth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. At the end of two years he was mustered out and given the privilege of reenlisting, which he immediately did and served until the close of the war, being promoted to the rank of sergeant major.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Humboldt.
1978New Franken sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Humboldt.
Nobody well known was born in Humboldt itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Schiller, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Humboldt is more historic than 50% 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.
22% of Humboldt’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±11.9 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1969.
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 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.
