Do You Know the Oldest Town in Each State?
The United States of America may rest on ancient land, but as a nation it is a mere baby: the country’s oldest continuously-occupied settlement, St. Augustine in Florida, celebrated its 450thbirthday as recently as 2015.
The towns that sprung up in St. Augustine’s wake have something to say about the fascinating story of the Americas, with even the town names – from Santa Fe to Cheyenne – speaking volumes about the part each one played in the making of a super-power.
We decided to delve deeper by creating our own illustrated list of the American towns that have been lived in the longest.
In the spirit of our guide to the oldest building in every state, we’ve put each state’s oldest town into a temporal context by animating the settlements in the order that they appeared. Are you ready to go on a journey through time?