The West Milford post office opened in 1844, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Milford (1827), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 210 in 18902020 census: 449182 years
Founding year: the first West Milford post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about West Milford’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 651 in 2000; 449 people lived here in 2020.
13 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on West Milford’s Wikipedia page.
On the map
West Milford on the map, 1904 to 1976
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of West Milford. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1904Weston sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of West Milford.
The story so far
West Milford, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of West Milford yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
West Milford is a town in Harrison County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 452 at the 2020 census. West Milford was named on account of there being a mill on the ford of the West Fork River.
Its first post office opened in 1844. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 630 to 449 (-29%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about West Milford in 1910
Passages that mention West Milford, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Harrison County, West Virginia1910 · page 347Read the page →
Read the text
Richard "W. Stonestreet was this day filed showing that a majority of all the qualified voters residing in the described boundaries, containing 160 acres, have been given in due form of law in favor of the incorporation of the town of "West Milford in the County of Harrison, bound as herein set forth." The order proceeded to authorize the town within the limits set forth to be duly incorporated and to exercise all the corporate powers conferred by the existing laws of the State. And Oliver Johnson, C. "W.
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
West Milford, 1827 to 2000
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 Wikimedia Commons (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
2017