Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
From the record
“The Public Square Historic District in Sigourney, Iowa, United States is a 11.9-acre (4.8 ha) historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. The listing included 41 contributing buildings, a contributing structure, and two contributing objects.”
Wikipedia article Public Square Historic District (Sigourney, Iowa), CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 10 National Register listings published here for Keokuk County · listed in 1999 · category: District.
National Register reference number.99000487- 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 2009
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 22 fires within 5 miles of Public Square Historic District
between 2009 and 2020, burning about 258 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
14
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
6
Equipment and vehicle use
1
Smoking
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
3 workings within 5 miles of Public Square Historic District: 3 past producers.
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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Sigourney, the town this property stands in, in 49 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 28 thunderstorm wind, 13 hail, 4 flood, 3 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.
Wind gusts estimated to be 60 mph blew a semi trailer over onto its side in Sigourney, IA around 635 pm on May 8. This report was relayed by the KCRG TV weather team.
Severe thunderstorm winds estimated at 80 mph by spotters destroyed one building and damaged others at the county fairgrounds. The roof and walls of the commercial exhibition building were torn off, scattering debris eastward into other buildings. 2x4 boards were driven into the roof of the main fair building. Damage at the fairgrounds was estimated at $30,000 to $35,000.
Heavy rain and snow melt across the region caused the North Skunk River south of Sigourney to rise above major flood stage of 21.0 feet on March 15th. The river fell back below major flood stage on the 17th. The river crested at 23.01 feet on the 16th.
A trained spotter reported estimated 60 MPH winds. Half of a large four foot diameter tree was blown down. In addition, an anchored dog house was blown about 15 feet away. Pea to half inch diameter hail occurred as well.
The Postmaster in Sigourney reported that hail about the size of a golf ball fell a half mile north of town. There were also dents in the siding of a home. The time of the event was estimated using radar.
Heavy rain across the Upper Midwest and eastern Iowa during the last two weeks of June caused the North Skunk River near Sigourney to rise above its major flood stage of 21 feet around 1100 AM on July 1 and fall below major flood stage around 930 AM on July 5. The river crested at 23 feet around 11PM on July 2 and remained at the crest through 100 AM on July 4.
The emergency manager reported widepread wind damage across Keokuk county which occurred between 10 pm and 1020 pm. Transmission lines were snapped near and east of Sigourney along with some buildings damaged.
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
4 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.
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.
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