Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Ten Sleep

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Ten Sleep

Ten Sleep’s post office opened in 1891, and 21% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listings are the Ten Sleep Mercantile and the Emerson Parks House. Below: maps from 1899 on and the census since 1940.

1891first post office
2on the National Register
21%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Ten Sleep began

When was Ten Sleep founded?

1891

The Ten Sleep post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 345 in 19402020 census: 246135 years
Founding year: the first Ten Sleep post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Ten Sleep’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Ten Sleep are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 18994 editions of the USGS map, 1899 to 1979. Watch Ten Sleep change.Boom and bustPeaked at 407 in 1980; 246 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Ten Sleep’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
On the map

Ten Sleep on the map, 1899 to 1979

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Ten Sleep. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Ten Sleep on the 1899 USGS mapTen Sleep on the 1901 USGS mapTen Sleep on the 1967 USGS mapTen Sleep on the 1979 USGS map1899Cloud peak sheet · 1:125,000

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

People over time

Ten Sleep, census by census

010020030040019401960198020002020Peak: 407

Peaked at 407 in 1980; 246 people lived here in 2020.

9 censuses, 1940–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Ten Sleep’s Wikipedia page.

The story

How Ten Sleep came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Ten Sleep.

Read it all →

Ten Sleep was an American Indian rest stop, so called because it was 10 days' travel, or “10 sleeps,” from Fort Laramie (southeast), Yellowstone National Park (west-northwest), and the Indian Agency on the Stillwater River in Montana (northwest). The archeological sites in the area feature artifacts such as arrowheads, pictographs and petroglyphs.

Ten Sleep was also the site of the Spring Creek Raid, one of the last feuds of the West's Sheep and Cattlemen's War. It was there in March 1909 that cattlemen attacked sheep herders and their flock, killing three men and shooting hundreds of the sheep.

ChaptersArchaeology and geology

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Ten Sleep, 1891 to 1980

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1891Post officeThe Ten Sleep post office opens
  3. 1899On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 20th century
  5. 1980CensusPopulation peaks at 407
By decade

Ten Sleep, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Ten Sleep 13-9-2014 13-40-562014Ten Sleep 13-9-2014 13-40-56Ten Sleep 13-9-2014 13-40-262014Ten Sleep 13-9-2014 13-40-26
On the National Register

2 historic places in Ten Sleep

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

places listed
2
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
2
each building in a district counts
first listed
1986
Ten Sleep Mercantile
Ten Sleep MercantileEmerson Parks House
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Vernacular1
Ten Sleep MercantileVernacular
Emerson Parks HouseBuilding

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

Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Ten Sleep’s post office has been open since 1891.

Gone or out of use
Frison Minemine
1cemetery inside Ten Sleep
Ten Sleep

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

Questions about Ten Sleep’s history

What year was Ten Sleep founded?

The Ten Sleep post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Ten Sleep?

Two places: the Ten Sleep Mercantile (listed 1986) and the Emerson Parks House (2016).

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 (2), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, 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) 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.