Louis Johnson Water Tank House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

From the record

“The Louis Johnson Water Tank House near Richfield, Idaho, United States, is believed to have been built in the 1910s by sheep rancher and stonemason Bill Darrah. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.”
Wikipedia article Louis Johnson Water Tank 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 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Listed as. Johnson, Louis, Water Tank House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. W of Richfield, Richfield, 83349
When was it listed? September 1983
Category. building
Also known as. Lava Rock Structures in South Central Idaho TR
Census division. Richfield
National Register reference number. 83002374 - 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 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 22 fires within 5 miles of Louis Johnson Water Tank House between 1992 and 2020, burning about 8,030 acres in total. 5 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
Equipment and vehicle use	8
Natural	5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	4
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Debris and open burning	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	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
13 September 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3.5 acres	Twin Falls District	MM 181
1 September 2008	Equipment and vehicle use	104 acres	Twin Falls District	CRATER BUTTE
9 August 1995	Equipment and vehicle use	11 acres	Twin Falls District	HWY93MP175
8 August 1995	Misuse of fire by a minor	2.0 acres	Twin Falls District	RIVERWOOD
28 August 1996	Misuse of fire by a minor	100 acres	Twin Falls District	PATTERSON
27 August 2016	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Twin Falls District	LINCOLN
24 August 2005	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Twin Falls District	CUTOFF
16 August 2007	Natural	307 acres	Twin Falls District	RICHFIELD WEST

Every fire recorded in Lincoln County

Storms near this property

18 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Richfield, the town this property stands in, in 18 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 12 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 tornado. 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
August 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Richfield	$5,000	At mile post 169 on highway 26 four trees and 2 power lines were downed by thunderstorm winds. Power lines fell on the highway and only one lane was open for several hours.
May 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Richfield	-	A large power outage reported across the city of Richfield due to thunderstorm winds.
September 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Richfield	-	A 59 mph wind gust near Richfield.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Richfield	-	A 68 mph wind gust measured at the Richfield mesonet site.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Richfield	-	A 59 mph thunderstorm outflow wind was measured in Richfield.
September 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Richfield	-	A 62 mph wind gust measured by Richfield.
August 2014	Hail	Richfield	-	Golf ball sized hail reported in Richfield.
August 2014	Hail	Richfield	-	One inch hail reported in the city of Richfield.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Richfield	-	Mesonet site at Richfield measured a 61 mph wind gust at 8:13 pm MDT.
October 2006	Tornado (F0)	Richfield	-	Tornado over open ground near Mammoth Ice Caves. No damage occurred.
May 2005	Hail	Richfield	-	One inch hail in Richfield.
June 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Richfield	-	no account filed
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Richfield	-	no account filed
August 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Richfield	-	no account filed
January 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Richfield	-	no account filed
May 1998	Hail	Richfield	-	no account filed
May 1998	Hail	Richfield	-	no account filed
August 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Richfield	-	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
Louis Johnson Barn	0.8 miles	1983
John G. Turner House	1.4 miles	1983
Birdie Boussuet Farm	2.8 miles	1983
Kenneth G. Phelphs Barn	3.9 miles	1983
Gehrig Gottfried Cabin	4.4 miles	1983
James H. Laine Barn	4.8 miles	1983

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 83002374 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.
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.