Osceola County Courthouse

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

From the record

“The Osceola County Courthouse in Sibley, Iowa, United States, was built in 1902. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 as a part of the County Courthouses in Iowa Thematic Resource.”
Wikipedia article Osceola County Courthouse (Iowa), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 1 National Register listings published here for Osceola County · listed in 1981 · 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.
Address. 3rd Ave. and 8th St., Sibley, 51249
When was it listed? July 1981
Category. building
Also known as. County Courthouses in Iowa TR
Township. West Holman township
National Register reference number. 81000261 - 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

22 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 22 fires within 5 miles of Osceola County Courthouse between 2008 and 2020, burning about 100 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
Debris and open burning	7
Equipment and vehicle use	5
Smoking	5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5

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
22 September 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	10 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
9 June 2016	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	SIBLEY FIRE DEPARTMENT
9 June 2016	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	SIBLEY FIRE DEPARTMENT
24 June 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
15 May 2020	Smoking	20 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
7 April 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
3 April 2008	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
23 April 2020	Debris and open burning	40 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Osceola 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 Osceola County Courthouse: 4 past producers, 2 producers. 2 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
Estherville S and G	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Lienen Brothers	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Peters Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Railroad	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Roskam	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Osceola County

Storms near this property

60 of 65 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sibley, the town this property stands in, in 65 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 31 thunderstorm wind, 24 hail, 5 tornado, 3 flood. The reports record 14 injuries. 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
June 2010	Tornado (EF4)	Sibley	13 hurt, $3,000,000	A tornado, moving into Osceola County from Lyon County, destroyed at least two houses, injuring two people in one of them. the tornado also destroyed several garages and severely damaged several other homes, destroyed at least 4 hog confinement buildings, several barns and silos, and numerous outbuildings. The tornado destroyed three vehicles that had been parked under an Iowa Highway 60 overpass, injuring 11 people in the vehicles, and removing the engine from one of the vehicles. The tornado damaged power lines, causing power outages, and caused damage to trees and crops. The tornado also destroyed a shelter belt and severely damaged heavy farm equipment, removing the wheels from some of the vehicles. Much of the damage occurred a short distance west to south of the town of Sibley.
August 1994	Tornado (F3)	Sibley	1 hurt, $500,000	no account filed
June 1998	Tornado (F1)	Sibley	$500,000	no account filed
August 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	$500,000	no account filed
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	$200,000	Thunderstorm winds caused widespread tree damage, blew down power lines, and destroyed or damaged several large sheds and a silo on a farm. The severe winds also resulted in four calves being killed.
July 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	$200,000	no account filed
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	$75,000	Several grain bins were damaged, and large road signs were bent over on the south exit to Sibley from Iowa Highway 60.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	$50,000	A metal shed was damaged, along with numerous trees down.
June 2014	Flood	Sibley	$50,000	Persistent moderate to heavy rain caused flooding of fields and other lowlands, including several roads, homes, and businesses. This flooding lasted for almost two days, and was aggravated locally by additional storms during that time. Some roads were damaged or washed out.
May 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	$50,000	Numerous thunderstorms developed in the strong, moist southerly flow ahead of an approaching cold front. Many of them produced pea to marble-size hail and gusty winds of 40 to 50 MPH. One of the cells became severe and produced winds strong enough to take down power lines and one utility pole east of Akron. During the late evening hours, the thunderstorms weakened and collapsed. As the tops collapsed, high winds affected Osceola County. Trees were toppled and power lines downed. Several out buildings were toppled as well. A machine shed, on a farmstead west of May City, was picked up and hurled 100 feet from its foundation. The building was destroyed. Some minor damage was also done to the farmhouse as well. Trees and power lines were also downed on a farmstead east of Ocheyedan. A machine shed was also destroyed by high winds there.
June 1994	Hail	Sibley	$50,000	no account filed
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	$20,000	Thunderstorm winds blew down the walls of a garage under construction, blew a playground set into the back of a house, and caused shingle damage to several roofs. The winds also loosened rain gutters, blew downspouts away from a house, and caused widespread tree damage, including a few trees blown down.
April 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	$20,000	Thunderstorm winds blew down power poles, resulting in power outages.
August 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	$5,000	no account filed
August 1994	Hail	Sibley	$5,000	no account filed
April 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	$1,000	no account filed
April 2025	Hail	Sibley	-	Quarter to half-dollar size hail fell for a brief time.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	Trees were reported down in Sibley from thunderstorm wind gusts.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	Winds were measured by a personal weather station.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	Wind initially hit severe levels at 1300CST with a peak wind of 83 mph recorded at 1310CST at mesonet station RSYI4 near Sibley.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts removed the roof from a small shed.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	Thunderstorm wind gust was measured by Iowa mesonet station RSYI4 near Sibley.
June 2024	Flash Flood	Sibley	-	Torrential rainfall of up to 3 to 5 inches in 3 hours early evening resulted in rising water around Sibley that required some homes to be evacuated and residents to be sheltered. For a more comprehensive description of flood damage, please see other entries for areal and river flooding for Osceola County.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts up to 59 mph were measured by the Iowa Road Weather Information System site RSYI4 near Sibley.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	Thunderstorm winds downed several trees in Sibley and caused power outages.
May 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	A thunderstorm wind gust of 82 mph was measured by Iowa Road Weather Information System site RSYI4 3 miles northeast of Sibley.
April 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	Law enforcement reported wrist sized and larger tree limbs down.
July 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	Six to eight inch diameter tree branches were broken by thunderstorm wind gusts.
August 2017	Tornado (EF1)	Sibley	-	The EF-1 tornado was responsible for mainly crop damage, as well as tress in and along shelter belts. The tornado dissipated shortly after crossing into Osceola county from Nobles county in southwest Minnesota.
August 2017	Hail	Sibley	-	Reported by the Emergency Manager.
April 2011	Flood	Sibley	-	Flooding of lowlands, including some farmland, continued in the county through most of April, though flooding generally abated slowly. A few roads remained flooded. High water and groundwater levels resulting from record precipitation in the previous year was the main reason that the flooding either grew worse or improved so slowly.
March 2011	Flood	Sibley	-	Melting of a heavy winter snow cover caused flooding of lowlands, lakes, and streams. There was considerable flooding of farmland. Several roads in the county were flooded. Some of the roads were closed, and a few were washed out in spots. The flooding onset was rapid for a snow melt flood due to high water and groundwater levels from record precipitation in the year 2010.
July 2010	Flash Flood	Sibley	-	Heavy rain caused flash flooding of numerous roads and basements.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several branches blown down.
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	Thunderstorm winds damaged crops and blew down branches. The amount of crop or tree damage was not known.
September 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including numerous two to three inch diameter branches blown down.
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including blowing down a large limb across a road. The limb could not be moved by a deputy.
July 2000	Tornado (F0)	Sibley	-	A brief tornado caused no reported damage.
April 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	no account filed
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	no account filed
July 2023	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	no account filed
August 2017	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed
August 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	no account filed
September 2008	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed
August 2007	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed
May 2007	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed
July 2006	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	no account filed
May 2005	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed
May 2005	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed
April 2004	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed
April 2004	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed
July 2004	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Sibley	-	no account filed
April 2001	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed
April 2001	Hail	Sibley	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Osceola 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.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 81000261 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Osceola County	All 1 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.