Mill Creek Bridge

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

From the record

“Mill Creek Bridge is a historic structure located in a rural area north of Clarence, Iowa, United States.The Cedar Bluff Bridge over the Cedar River was the first all-iron span built in Cedar County in 1877. Four more iron spans were built later that year, as were several others over the years before this bridge was completed in 1889.”
Wikipedia article Mill Creek Bridge (Clarence, Iowa), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 21 National Register listings published here for Cedar County · listed in 1998 · category: Structure.

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 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. Plum St. over Mill Cr., Clarence, 52216
When was it listed? June 1998
Category. structure
Also known as. Highway Bridges of Iowa MPS
Township. Dayton township
National Register reference number. 98000743 - 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

1 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Mill Creek Bridge in 2009, burning about 20 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
22 April 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	20 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Cedar County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Mill Creek Bridge: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: 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	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Kelly Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Cedar County

Storms near this property

29 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Clarence, the town this property stands in, in 29 storm reports between 1993 and 2026: 15 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 2 flood, 2 flash flood. The reports record 2 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
April 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Clarence	1 hurt, $55,000	no account filed
April 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Clarence	1 hurt, $20,000	no account filed
July 2003	Tornado (F1)	Clarence	$1,000,000	Strong F1...winds estimated around 110 mph.
April 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Clarence	$100,000	The same line of storms produced a severe downburst in Clarence and immediately south. Winds with this downburst were estimated at 83-87 knots (95-100 mph).In Clarence, Hunwardsen Fabrication lost the roof and one entire wall of their building with the debris scattered across the parking lot to the west. South of town a grain bin and a gazebo were destroyed.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Clarence	$50,000	Wind gusts estimated to be 70 mph blew down a number of trees onto cars and power lines in Clarence, IA around 1 pm June 18. This report was relayed by KGAN.
May 1993	Hail	Clarence	$50,000	no account filed
June 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Clarence	$15,000	A warm and humid air mass was over Iowa during the day. The outflow boundary from convection to the west of the state during the previous night moved into Iowa from the northwest. By mid afternoon it was about one-third the way southeast across the state. The actual cold front remained west of the state. Winds aloft were nearly nonexistent and as a result thunderstorms that did develop were nearly truly air mass type. A few storms became severe as new cells formed on the collisions of outflow boundaries from earlier storms. Three-quarters inch diameter hail fell south of the Dubuque Airport in eastern Iowa. About the same time, a storm over Wright County produced high winds in Eagle Grove. Several trees were downed in the city. During the evening, thunderstorms moved across Poweshiek County. Lightning struck a main feeder line near Searsboro, knocking the electricity in Montezuma. Winds downed several trees in the city of Montezuma. Another storm downed several trees and flipped dog houses southwest of Clarence in Cedar County. Most of the storms produced brief but very heavy rains, small hail, and winds of 30 to 50 mph. A few spots picked up over three inches of rain in a short time. Flooding was not reported as soil conditions were very dry.
April 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Clarence	$5,000	no account filed
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Clarence	$4,000	A small area of thunderstorms dropped southeast across northeast and east central Iowa during the early morning hours. They formed in conjunction with a weak upper level disturbance moving through a moist and unstable air mass. A few of the storms became marginally severe as they moved through Clinton and Cedar Counties. Trees were downed in both counties. A car was blown off the road northeast of Clarence in Cedar County.
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Clarence	$3,000	Large pine tree down on a farm house with a power line down.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Clarence	$2,000	Wind gusts estimated to be 60 mph blew down some tree limbs onto some power lines in Clarence, IA at 1128 am CDT July 24.
March 2004	Hail	Clarence	$2,000	no account filed
June 2007	Lightning	Clarence	$1,000	A house was struck by lightning knocking the chimney off and causing some electrical wiring damage.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Clarence	-	Large tree downed on 5th Avenue, on the south side of town.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Clarence	-	Large tree branches blown down.
May 2019	Flash Flood	Clarence	-	Flash flooding closed portions of Highway 30 in Clarence.
May 2019	Flash Flood	Clarence	-	Law enforcement and spotters reported Highway 30 closed in both directions due to flash flooding.
May 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Clarence	-	Several three inch diameter branches blown down.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Clarence	-	Wind gusts estimated to be 75 mph blew down numerous trees and limbs in Clarence, IA around 820 pm CDT July 22.
March 2012	Hail	Clarence	-	Tennis ball sized hail fell in Clarence around 950 pm CDT March 31. It hailed from 950 pm until 1020 pm.
March 2012	Hail	Clarence	-	Quarter to silver dollar sized hail fell about 1 mile east of Clarence at 951 pm CDT March 31.
March 2012	Hail	Clarence	-	Golf ball sized hail fell in Clarence around 955 pm CDT March 31. The hail lasted for 5 to 7 minutes. This report was relayed by a trained spotter.
August 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Clarence	-	A report received via ESPOTTER estimated thunderstorm wind gusts around 72 mph.
March 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Clarence	-	The roofs were blown off 2 buildings at a farmstead.
July 2002	Flood	Clarence	-	Roadside park flooded.
July 2002	Flood	Clarence	-	Yankee River overflowed its banks flooding some pasture.
April 2026	Hail	Clarence	-	no account filed
June 2015	Hail	Clarence	-	no account filed
April 1997	Hail	Clarence	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Cedar 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

2 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	Property	Distance	Listed
	Red Oak Grove Presbyterian Church and Cemetery	6.6 miles	2010
	Lincoln Hotel	7.8 miles	1996

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 98000743 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Cedar County	All 21 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.