Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1932 on and old-book passages.
The Montana post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Montana’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Montana.
The town of Montana was created on November 12, 1867. The town's first settlers were Christian Kindschy, Ulrich Von Wald and August Helwig.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Montana, cut from the printed page as they were published.
On the 8th of July 1867 the new town of Montana was set off, and organized 1858 at the town meeting held in the log schoolhouse on Danuser's land, Peter Theissen was elected chairman and J. P. Remich clerk. Both of them had come but the year before and hailed from-the eastern part of Wisconsin. Before that time Caspar Meili, sen.. Math. Hansen, Caspar Rupp, Michael Gebus and Jacob Weisenberger and Fred Zeller had been settlers for some time. The railroad land in the town had become open to entry
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Annual meeting in November 1883, some land lying in the town of Lincoln was exchanged for some other land of the same extent, belonging to the town of Montana, the chairman of each of the two towns requesting the alteration. At the same meeting the so-called mile-strip which is described in Borne other place in these proceedings, was re-annexed to the town of Maxville from which it had been detached some fifteen or more
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Montana. 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 Montana.
Nobody well known was born in Montana itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Montana had its own post office from 1873 to 1907.
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.
The Montana post office opened in 1873, 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 Wikipedia, 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.
