TownTapestry
Sign inJoin
CraneGood night
History · Crane

Crane’s history is
mostly unwritten

The public archives hold no old photos of Crane. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.

0old images & papers
0recent photos

The story so far

from Wikipedia & the U.S. Census

Crane is a census-designated place and unincorporated community in Richland County, Montana, United States. As of the 2020 census, Crane had a population of 91. Crane has a post office with the ZIP code 59217. Montana Highway 16 passes through Crane. The town was named for trapper Jimmy Crain when the post office opened in 1910.

Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 102 to 91 (-11%). Half of its homes were built before 1986.

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Crane yet — the old photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Intro from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Population and housing: U.S. Census Bureau.

Be one of the first

Start Crane’s collection

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

0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Famous people from CraneWriters, athletes, leaders and more who were born in Crane.Meet them →
By decade

Crane, decade by decade

Before
2000
No old photos in the archives yetWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
📷 Add from your album
National Register of Historic Places

Nothing in Crane is on the National Register yet

That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Crane has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Peoples' Congregational Church in Sidney, 10 miles away.

Crane and the nearest listed places

Dashed line = Crane. Tap a dot.
Peoples' Congregational ChurchBurgess Garage

Closest to Crane

Peoples' Congregational ChurchSidney · Building10miBurgess GarageFox Lake · Building19.3mi

How a place gets listed

1Talk to the stateEvery nomination goes through the State Historic Preservation Office. Owners, towns and historical societies can start one.
2Try a local or state list firstMany states keep their own register with a shorter form, a common first step for old barns, halls and schoolhouses.
3Write it upA nomination covers the history, photos and a map. Peoples' Congregational Church’s page links to a real one.
Know an old place in Crane?A mill, a schoolhouse, a cellar hole, a church: add a photo of it to Crane’s story, or a memory of it.
📷 Add a photo of an old place
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places · photos from Wikimedia Commons

Then & now

When neighbors add old photos, retakes from the same spot appear here side by side.

Stories next door

nearby towns’ history
📜 Sidney📜 Fairview📜 Yellowstone📜 Henry
We left the porch light on

Where to, neighbor?

You’re in Crane, MTView boundary

Nearby

All towns & citiesExplore the map

Local begins with a boundary.

See what belongs to your selected town.

Loading boundary…

Crane is your selected town. The feed includes posts assigned to this town, not a distance radius or ZIP code.

Neighborhoods narrow the feed further, while townwide announcements, events, and issues remain visible.

Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/19 · 2025-01-01
Open detailed map