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History · Arvada

Arvada’s post office opened in 1893, and 46% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the EAU Arvada Bridge. Below: 2 old photos and papers and maps from 1971 on.

1893first post office
1on the National Register
46%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Arvada’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Arvada began

When was Arvada founded?

1893

The Arvada post office opened in 1893, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Suggs (1891), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 33133 years
Founding year: the first Arvada post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Arvada’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Arvada’s homes were built before 1963.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Arvada’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Arvada’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo2 archive items have no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewArvada Bridge, Spanning Power River on …: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Arvada came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Arvada.

Read it all →

Arvada, Wyoming, is located on the west bank of the Powder River, about fifty miles northwest of

Gillette. From 1888 to 1891, a stage line that ran from Sundance to

Buffalo crossed the Powder River on a ferry boat at the future site of Arvada. The town of Suggs, Wyoming, was established on the east bank of the river in 1891, and a post office opened September 14, 1891. Suggs was named for a local rancher.

During the summer of 1892, railroad crews working on the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, built a bridge across the Powder River at Suggs, although the railroad had only reached Gillette at that point in time. Suggs quickly became an "end of tracks town" with bars, brothels, and gambling establishments.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Arvada, 1891 to 1971

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1891Post officeThe Suggs post office opens
  3. 1893Post officeThe Suggs post office closes
  4. 1893Post officeThe Arvada post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1971On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Arvada, decade by decade

Date unknown2 to date
Arvada Bridge, Spanning Power River on County Road No. 38Date?Arvada Bridge, Spanning Power River on County Road No…Powder River Bridge, U.S. Highway 14/16Date?Powder River Bridge, U.S. Highway 14/16
Today1 recent
WYMap-doton-Arvada2004WYMap-doton-Arvada
On the map

Arvada on the map in 1971

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Arvada.

Arvada on the 1971 USGS map1971Arvada sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Arvada.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Arvada Bridge, Spanning Power River on County Road No. 38
Retake this viewArvada Bridge, Spanning Power River on County Road No. 38

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Arvada’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Arvada

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1985
EAU Arvada Bridge
EAU Arvada Bridge
Structures
EAU Arvada BridgeStructure

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Arvada’s post office has been open since 1893. Another post office, Suggs, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Suggs
1891–1893
Arvada
1893–today
18901960today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Arvada’s history

What year was Arvada founded?

The Arvada post office opened in 1893, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Arvada?

One place: the EAU Arvada Bridge (listed 1985).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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), the Library of Congress (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.