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Nels Severson Barn

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

From the record

“The Nels Severson Barn, also known as "Fort" Severson, is a historic barn located north of Carpenter in rural Mitchell County, Iowa, United States. It is a two-story structure composed of irregularly-cut limestone with a gable roof.”

Wikipedia article Nels Severson Barn, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 12 National Register listings published here for Mitchell County · listed in 1977 · category: Building.

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

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Listed as. Severson, Nels, Barn - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
  • Address. N of Carpenter, Carpenter, 50472
  • When was it listed? July 1977
  • Category. building
  • Township. Newburg township
  • National Register reference number. 77000540 - 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

3 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Nels Severson Barn between 2009 and 2011, burning about 3 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/undetermined3

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

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
5 June 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
3 April 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resources4894 485TH, IA
11 April 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Every fire recorded in Mitchell County

Mines and quarries near this property

6 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Nels Severson Barn: 6 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Falk QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Pope QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Mitchell County

Storms near this property

9 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Carpenter, the town this property stands in, in 9 storm reports between 1994 and 2017: 5 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2017Thunderstorm WindCarpenter$60,000On a farm near Carpenter, tin silos were twisted and large trees were blown down. On another farm, a downed tree fell on a house.
October 2006HailCarpenter$35,000no account filed
May 1998Thunderstorm WindCarpenter$10,000no account filed
July 1994HailCarpenter$5,000no account filed
July 1995HailCarpenter$1,000no account filed
May 2013Flash FloodCarpenter-Heavy rains pushed Deer Creek out of its banks causing water to go over roads in the vicinity of Carpenter.
April 2011HailCarpenter-Nickel size hail fell in Carpenter.
September 2011Thunderstorm WindCarpenter-Widespread corn and bean fields were flattened across Mitchell County. The USDA estimated that 500 acres of corn were destroyed while 81,000 acres suffered a 60% yield loss. Almost 8,600 acres of beans suffered a 10% yield loss. Total crop losses were estimated to be in excess of $41 million. The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a natural disaster designation for this damage.
July 2001HailCarpenter-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

3 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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Otranto Bridge2.9 miles1998
First Lutheran Church5.2 miles1976
Saint Ansgar Public School5.4 miles2020

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 77000540 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Mitchell CountyAll 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.