Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1929 on, and old-book passages.
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 Sterling’s history is told.
Four other post offices 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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Sterling yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Sterling is a town in Vernon County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 550 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated communities of Purdy, Retreat, and West Prairie are located in the town.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 633 to 550 (-13%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Sterling, cut from the printed page as they were published.
and Crawford counties, the sandstone on the principle divide covers the greater part of the township, with a fine exposure in two mounds near the center of section 5, (town of Sterling), Vernon county. From the northeast corner of this township (town of Sterling), a high and very irregular ridge, with numerous lateral branches, extends west nearly to the Mississippi
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
lin ; Orriu Wisel, June 17, 1848, of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 25, township 12, ranged west, in the town of Franklin also; of LeGrand and Lewis Sterling. Aug 10, 1848, of the south half of the southwest quarter of section 2, in township 11, of range 6 west, in the town of Sterling.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
One of the earliest settlers of Vernon county is Alexander Latshaw. Perhaps, with the exception of Lee Grant Sterling, there is no older resident of the county. In 1847 lie made an entry in the town of Sterling, on sections 3 and 4, town 11, range 6 west. At the time of his arrival there were but two families in the town — those of L. G. Sterling and George Nichols.
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.
In the archiveThe home of a prosperous beet grower near Sterling, Colorado, who moved here six years ag…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sterling. 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 Sterling.
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 Sterling’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Sterling itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
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 (1), 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.
