Walnut Grove School

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

From the record

“Walnut Grove School is a historic one-room schoolhouse located southwest of Osage in rural Mitchell County, Iowa, United States. It was in operation from 1857 to 1946, and it educated anywhere from five to thirty-three student at a time.”
Wikipedia article Walnut Grove School (Osage, Iowa), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 12 National Register listings published here for Mitchell County · listed in 2002 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 3272 Foothill Ave., Osage, 50461
When was it listed? September 2002
Category. building
Township. Cedar township
National Register reference number. 02001028 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

6 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Walnut Grove School between 2008 and 2016, burning about 30 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2
Debris and open burning	2
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Natural	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
7 September 2015	Natural	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
7 April 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
5 April 2015	Debris and open burning	10 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
3 April 2016	Debris and open burning	5.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	OSAGE
2 November 2008	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
17 October 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	9.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Mitchell County

Mines and quarries near this property

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Walnut Grove School: 4 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Decklever Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Osage Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Wrage Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Mitchell County

Storms near this property

58 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Osage, the town this property stands in, in 58 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 27 thunderstorm wind, 17 hail, 5 flood, 4 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
April 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$1,000,000	no account filed
July 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$500,000	no account filed
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$70,000	no account filed
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$65,000	no account filed
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$50,000	A barn was blown over west of Osage killing 5 head of cattle that were inside the barn at the time.
April 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$50,000	no account filed
December 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$40,000	Part of a roof was blown off a house and a garage door blown in at a residence in Osage.
May 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$15,000	Power lines and tree branches were blown down in Osage. A tree that was blown over landed on cars and another blocked a street.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$13,000	Several trees were blown down and blocked streets in Osage. One of these trees landed on a car.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$10,000	Numerous trees and power lines were reported down throughout the county.
June 2008	Flood	Osage	$10,000	no account filed
March 2005	Tornado (F0)	Osage	$10,000	no account filed
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$7,500	no account filed
September 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$7,000	A tree was blown down on a house and several other trees and light poles were damaged in Osage.
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$7,000	no account filed
July 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$6,000	An estimated 70 mph wind gust occurred in Osage. Numerous trees were blown down with one blocking U.S. Highway 218.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$5,000	Power lines and tree limbs were blown down near Osage.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$5,000	Trees were blown down in Osage with at least one landing on a car.
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$5,000	Some trees and power lines were blown down in Osage.
August 1994	Hail	Osage	$5,000	no account filed
May 1994	Hail	Osage	$5,000	no account filed
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$4,500	no account filed
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$2,000	Trees were blown down in Osage.
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$2,000	Trees were blown down north of Osage.
June 2018	Flood	Osage	$2,000	Runoff from heavy rain pushed some small creeks out of their banks across southern Mitchell County with the flood waters going over some roads.
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$2,000	Trees were blown down between Osage and Mitchell.
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$2,000	Trees were blown down in Osage.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$2,000	Several large tree branches were blown down in Osage.
September 2016	Flood	Osage	$2,000	Runoff from heavy rain pushed the Cedar River out of its banks near Osage. The river crested almost six feet above the flood stage at 27.78 feet.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$1,500	A few trees were blown down in Osage.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	$1,500	no account filed
June 2018	Hail	Osage	$1,000	no account filed
July 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	-	The Mitchell County 911 Call Center reported multiple trees down in the city of Osage.
May 2022	Hail	Osage	-	Ping pong ball sized hail was reported in Osage.
June 2018	Funnel Cloud	Osage	-	A funnel cloud was sighted north of Osage.
June 2018	Heavy Rain	Osage	-	Four inches of rain fell in Osage.
August 2016	Heavy Rain	Osage	-	The COOP observer in Osage measured 4.73 inches of rain.
October 2016	Flood	Osage	-	Runoff from heavy rains pushed the Cedar River out of its banks near Osage. The river crested less than a foot over the flood stage at 22.83 feet.
June 2014	Flood	Osage	-	Runoff from heavy rain pushed the Cedar River out of its banks sending water over River Road west of Osage.
April 2013	Heavy Rain	Osage	-	The COOP observer near Osage reported 2.52 inches of rain.
May 2013	Hail	Osage	-	Lots of quarter sized hail fell and covered the ground along State Highway 9 just west of Osage.
May 2013	Heavy Rain	Osage	-	The automated mesonet observing equipment in Osage measured 3.84 inches of rain.
June 2008	Hail	Osage	-	Hail covered the ground two inches deep. A weather station at the Law Enforcement Center had a temperature drop from 79 to 36 degrees.
July 2008	Flash Flood	Osage	-	Street flooding was reported in Osage with measured rainfall of 2.50 inches.
April 2013	Hail	Osage	-	no account filed
May 2012	Hail	Osage	-	no account filed
April 2009	Hail	Osage	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Osage	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Osage	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Osage	-	no account filed
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Osage	-	no account filed
July 2005	Funnel Cloud	Osage	-	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Osage	-	no account filed
June 1997	Hail	Osage	-	no account filed
June 1997	Hail	Osage	-	no account filed
October 1996	Hail	Osage	-	no account filed
October 1996	Hail	Osage	-	no account filed
August 1994	Tornado (F0)	Osage	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Mitchell County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Mitchell Powerhouse and Dam	6.4 miles	1978
Mitchell County Courthouse	6.5 miles	1977
Nathaniel Cobb and Lucetia Baily Deering House	6.5 miles	2001
Cedar Valley Seminary	6.6 miles	1977
Osage Commercial Historic District	6.6 miles	2002
Our Savior's Lutheran Church	6.9 miles	2022

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 02001028 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Mitchell County	All 12 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.