Darrah House and Water Tank House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

From the record

“The Ben Darrah Water Tank and Well House near Shoshone, Idaho, United States, were built in c. 1916 by stonemason Bill Darrah. They were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983; the listing included two contributing buildings on 1.3 acres (0.53 ha).”
Wikipedia article Ben Darrah Water Tank and Well House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 42 National Register listings published here for Lincoln County · listed in 1983 · 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 2 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. NE of Shoshone, Shoshone, 83352
When was it listed? September 1983
Category. building
Also known as. Lava Rock Structures in South Central Idaho TR
Census division. Shoshone
National Register reference number. 83002365 - 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

79 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 79 fires within 5 miles of Darrah House and Water Tank House between 1992 and 2020, burning about 7,597 acres in total. 8 started naturally. 3 were 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
Equipment and vehicle use	33
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	18
Railroad operations and maintenance	9
Natural	8
Arson/incendiarism	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Debris and open burning	2
Smoking	2
Fireworks	1
Firearms and explosives use	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
8 September 2005	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Twin Falls District	GRACIE
4 September 1996	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Twin Falls District	JOHNNYS E.
4 September 1996	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	61 acres	Twin Falls District	JOHNNYSMID
4 September 1996	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Twin Falls District	JOHNNYS W.
25 September 2019	Firearms and explosives use	1.3 acres	Twin Falls District	DROPS
25 September 1999	Railroad operations and maintenance	610 acres	Twin Falls District	UPRRMP318
2 September 2003	Natural	under an acre	Twin Falls District	SHO WSA
19 September 2003	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Twin Falls District	HW75MM76W

Every fire recorded in Lincoln County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Darrah House and Water Tank House: 1 producer, 1 unknown. 1 still produces. 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.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Lows Sand & Gravel	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
	Unnamed Location	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown

Every working recorded in Lincoln County

Storms near this property

33 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Shoshone, the town this property stands in, in 33 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 20 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 4 flood, 2 funnel cloud. 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
February 2017	Flood	Shoshone	$2,150,000	A significant warmup caused massive sheet flooding in Lincoln County beginning early in the month and continuing through the end. Significant damage occurred to private homes and especially roadways. The state declared Lincoln county a disaster area. Many roads were closed by the 11th with water over roadways from east of Shoshone to the Minidoka County line. The town of Kimana had significant flooding as well. Some of the road closures were 200 East Highway 24, 270 South between 650-750 East, 330S between 750 and 850, 70 South, 600 North and 1200 North.
March 2017	Flood	Shoshone	$277,000	Snow melt sheet flooding continued into March in the region with continued road and property damage due to the waters. The last two days of the month release from the Magic Reservoir into the Big Wood River caused some flooding 5 miles north of Shoshone and trapped a many in his home for a couple of days. It washed over the bridge in front of his home blocking his way out.
January 2012	Flood	Shoshone	$37,500	Several thousand dollars worth of damage due to flooding from extensive rainfall during the week. In Lincoln County two rural houses flooded along with several road washouts. Much of 420N washed out along with 720N 825 E and several BLM roads. Several roads damaged in the city of Shoshone.
December 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	$8,000	Numerous trees and power lines downed.
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	$8,000	no account filed
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	$5,000	Multiple trees downed in Shoshone with power outages reported. 5000 dollars worth of damage reported from tree limbs falling onto a house.
August 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	$5,000	no account filed
August 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	$4,000	no account filed
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	$1,500	Multiple trees were reported downed in Shoshone due to thunderstorm winds. A roof was also ripped off of a barn. Some power lines were downed and 100 people lost power in the city.
October 2006	Tornado (F0)	Shoshone	$1,000	Tornado touched down in Shoshone with several trees reported downed with some branches thrown through windows.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	-	Idaho Power reported 400 customers without power in southwest Lincoln County.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	-	A tree was downed at a residence causing some shingle damage.
October 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	-	Four power poles snapped in half between N Apple St and N Birch St. Large tree downed at W 4th St and N Cherry St. An outside ice storage bin flipped over and reports of multiple trees downed.
October 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	-	Multiple power poles down south of Shoshone along US Route 93.
April 2017	Flood	Shoshone	-	Releases form the Magic Reservoir the last two days of March continued into the first week of April and some field flooding along the Big Wood River continued including a washed out bridge on personal property. The man was blocked in his home for a few days.
September 2017	Funnel Cloud	Shoshone	-	A thunderstorm north of Shoshone created a funnel cloud at around 3:45 PM MDT on September 30th with photographs of the funnel provided by a Twin Falls television meteorologist.
August 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	-	Near the Lincoln and Blaine County border the sheriff reported thunderstorm wind gusts blew a car off the road.
August 2013	Hail	Shoshone	-	One inch hail measured in Shoshone.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	-	The Shoshone mesonet site recorded a 64 mph thunderstorm wind gust.
October 2006	Tornado (F0)	Shoshone	-	Tornado occurred over open land 9 miles northwest of Shoshone. No damage occurred.
September 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	-	Winds gusted to 66 miles per hour 20 miles northeast of Shoshone. Another storm at Soldier Mountain in Fairfield produced lightning that struck a ski lift control booth setting it on fire, the cable was broken and 15 ski lift chairs were damaged.
March 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	-	no account filed
June 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	-	no account filed
August 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	-	no account filed
August 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	-	no account filed
April 2003	Funnel Cloud	Shoshone	-	no account filed
August 2003	Wildfire	Shoshone	-	no account filed
June 1998	Hail	Shoshone	-	no account filed
June 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	-	no account filed
June 1996	Hail	Shoshone	-	no account filed
June 1996	Hail	Shoshone	-	no account filed
August 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	-	no account filed
August 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Shoshone	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lincoln 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

6 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
William M. Ritter House	2.6 miles	1983
W. H. Baugh House	2.9 miles	1983
Thomas Olley House	3.7 miles	1983
Custer Slaughter House	3.7 miles	1983
Jack Oughton House	3.8 miles	1983
Jose and Gertrude Anasola House	3.8 miles	1983

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 83002365 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Lincoln County	All 42 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.