Storm Lake High School

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.

From the record

“Old Storm Lake High School, also known as Storm Lake High School, Storm Lake Junior High School, South Elementary School, and South School, is a historic building located in Storm Lake, Iowa, United States. It is significant for its subdued Tudor Revival architecture and its association with the Des Moines architectural firm of Keffer and Jones.”
Wikipedia article Old Storm Lake High School, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 10 National Register listings published here for Buena Vista County · listed in 2017 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 310 Cayuga St., Storm Lake, 50588
When was it listed? January 2017
Category. building
City. Storm Lake city
National Register reference number. 100000485 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

1 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Storm Lake High School in 2009, burning about 45 acres in total. None 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	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
11 April 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	45 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Buena Vista County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Storm Lake High School: 6 past producers, 4 producers. 4 still produce. What was taken out: 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
Bjorklund Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Clark Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Overly Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Wetherell-Borklund Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Wetherell-Oatman Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Buena Vista County

Storms near this property

42 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Storm Lake, the town this property stands in, in 42 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 22 thunderstorm wind, 12 hail, 7 flash flood, 1 lightning. 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
August 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	$500,000	Thunderstorm winds blew the roof off a manufacturing plant, damaged docks and boats along the lake, caused widespread tree damage including numerous large trees blown down, blew down power lines and poles, resulting in power outages, damaged or destroyed several small sheds, blew down several awnings on businesses, snapped a 4 inch by 4 inch street sign pole, and blew shingles off roofs. Numerous vehicles, homes, and businesses sustained minor damage directly from the wind, while other vehicles and homes were damaged by falling trees and tree debris, some heavily.
June 2005	Flash Flood	Storm Lake	$200,000	Heavy rainfall of around 5 inches caused widespread flooding of streets, with up to 4 feet of water covering some intersections. Numerous vehicles stalled, including a police car responding to an emergency. Numerous basements and some surface floors of buildings were flooded, with several houses having up to 6 inches of water on ground level floors. The overflow of storm sewers caused treated sewage water to drain into the lake. Nearby fields and crops were also flooded.
June 2014	Flash Flood	Storm Lake	$100,000	Heavy rain caused flash flooding of numerous streets in Storm Lake. Basements were also flooded.
March 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	$30,000	Thunderstorm winds blew a 6 by 20 foot roof section off Kings Pointe Lodge. The roof section damaged other parts of the roof after it blew off. Roof debris and insulation damaged a vehicle in the lodge parking lot.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	$20,000	Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several trees blown down. Four vehicles were damaged by falling trees or tree debris. The winds also blew down power lines, causing a power outage.
September 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	$20,000	Thunderstorm winds caused tree and power line damage. The damage resulted in a power outage that lasted two and a half hours and affected over a thousand city households, about a third of the city's population.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	$10,000	Thunderstorm winds blew down trees and power lines.
July 2003	Flash Flood	Storm Lake	$10,000	Heavy rain caused flooding of roads, fields and other low areas, and small streams. The flooding washed out two bridges.
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	$5,000	Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including large branches and limbs blown down. At least two vehicles, a pickup truck and a restored automobile, suffered damage from tree debris.
April 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	Trees and power lines were downed in residential areas south of downtown Storm Lake.
April 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	Tree, power line, and roof damage occurred along business Highway 71. Most roof damage was to metal roofing and building soffits, with one building suffering the collapse of an unsupported cinder block wall. Several semi-trucks were tipped over. A large hardwood tree trunk was snapped off above the ground.
August 2008	Hail	Storm Lake	-	Large hail dented vehicles. The amount of property damage was not known.
August 2007	Flash Flood	Storm Lake	-	Thunderstorms caused heavy rain which caused flooding of streets and yards in Storm Lake on the evening of August 4th. The flash flood was the second one in town on the same day; the first being during the morning.
August 2007	Flash Flood	Storm Lake	-	Heavy rain caused flooding of numerous streets in the town of Storm Lake.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including at least one tree blown down.
May 2007	Flash Flood	Storm Lake	-	Heavy rain caused flash flooding of roads and fields.
August 2007	Flash Flood	Storm Lake	-	Rainfall of 3 to 4 inches caused flooding of several streets in Storm Lake.
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	Thunderstorm winds caused tree and power line damage. Tree debris blocked several roads in Storm Lake.
September 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including numerous large trees blown down.
September 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including a large tree blown down across a road.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including two inch diameter branches down.
August 2001	Lightning	Storm Lake	-	Lightning struck three large trees.
July 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several trees down.
October 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including a large and healthy tree blown down.
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	Thunderstorm winds caused an unknown amount of tree damage.
July 2016	Hail	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
June 2010	Hail	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
May 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
August 2008	Hail	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
August 2008	Hail	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
May 2006	Hail	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
May 1999	Hail	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
May 1998	Hail	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
July 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
May 1998	Hail	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
June 1998	Hail	Storm Lake	-	no account filed
June 1996	Hail	Storm Lake	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Buena Vista 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

5 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
Harker House	0.2 miles	1990
Lewis "Lew" J. Metcalf Residence	0.3 miles	2026
Illinois Central Passenger Depot-Storm Lake	0.4 miles	1990
Storm Lake Public Library	3.2 miles	1983
Danish Lutheran Church	5.9 miles	2011

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 100000485 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Buena Vista County	All 10 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.