Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1968 on and the census since 1980.
The Midwest post office opened in 1924, 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 Midwest’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Midwest yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Midwest is a town in Natrona County, Wyoming, United States. It is part of the Casper, Wyoming Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 285 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1924. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 404 to 285 (-29%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Midwest, cut from the printed page as they were published.
west from Independence Rock in 1920. The Chicago & Northwestern Railway company and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway company each have bridges across the river at Casper, and the Midwest Refining company and the Standard Oil company have bridged the river a number of places immediately west from Casper, until now bridges across the river are not given a thought, but in the early days, even since Natrona county was organized, the river bridges at Alcova, Bessemer and Casper were considered of vast and
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The Standard and Midwest refineries had many extra guards at their plants, guards were stationed at the Pathfinder dam, railroad bridges were guarded and every precaution was taken against German spies, there being every reason to believe that quite a number were located in and around Casper.
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.
Weddings 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 Midwest. 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 Midwest.
Between 285 and 638 people in every census since 1980.
5 censuses, 1980–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Midwest’s Wikipedia page.
The Midwest post office opened in 1924, 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 Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
