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Photograph of Sugar Creek Covered Bridge
Photograph by Maliwhite10, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Sugar Creek Covered Bridge

Built in 1880. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

From the record

One of 68 National Register listings published here for Sangamon County · listed in 1978 · category: Structure · built in 1880.

Sources: 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. SE of Chatham off I-55, Chatham, 62536
  • When was it listed? January 1978
  • Category. structure
  • Township. Ball township
  • When was it built? 1880
  • National Register reference number. 78001185 - 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 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Sugar Creek Covered Bridge in 2008, burning about 10 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/undetermined1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
23 June 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined10 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesCNRR

Every fire recorded in Sangamon County

Storms near this property

60 of 81 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Chatham, the town this property stands in, in 81 storm reports between 1998 and 2026: 41 hail, 36 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 1 lightning. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
September 2019LightningChatham$100,000A barn was struck by lightning and burned down.
April 2011Thunderstorm WindChatham$45,000Several trees and power lines were blown down. One house suffered roof damage.
June 2008Thunderstorm WindChatham$25,000Numerous trees, large tree limbs, and power lines were blown down. Measured gust was reported at Springfield airport.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindChatham$15,000Power lines were blown down east of Chatham.
May 2015Thunderstorm WindChatham$10,000Five to eight trees were snapped.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindChatham$5,000Several large tree branches were blown down.
May 2010Thunderstorm WindChatham$5,000A large cottonwood tree was blown down onto power lines, resulting in a four hour power outage.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindChatham$3,000Two 1.5 to 2-foot diameter trees were blown down. One of the trees fell onto a fence.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindChatham$2,000An 8-inch diameter tree was snapped at the base.
August 2009Thunderstorm WindChatham$2,000A large section of a Bradford Pear tree was broken off due to high winds.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindChatham$2,000A tree was blown down in Chatham.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindChatham$1,000A large tree was blown down.
March 2026Thunderstorm WindChatham-Powerlines were blown down.
May 2023Thunderstorm WindChatham-Several small tree branches were blown down.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindChatham-A large tree was blown down and blocked a subdivision road.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindChatham-Numerous large tree limbs were blown down.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindChatham-Numerous large trees were blown down across southern Sangamon County, mainly south of I-72.
December 2021Thunderstorm WindChatham-Power lines were blown down near Route 4 and Cottonwood Drive south of Walgreens.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindChatham-A 1.5-foot diameter tree limb was blown down on Lakewood Drive near Sugar Creek Stables.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindChatham-Several large tree branches were blown down.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindChatham-A large tree was blown down in Bridgeview Park.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindChatham-A few tree limbs were snapped and shingles were blown off a roof.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindChatham-Several large tree limbs were blown down onto a road.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindChatham-A 4-inch diameter tree limb was blown onto power lines.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindChatham-A power line was blown down on the 400 block of Main Street.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindChatham-Numerous trees were blown down on the Piper Glen Golf Course just north of Chatham.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindChatham-The bleachers, goal posts, and fence at a school were damaged. A tree was also blown down in town.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindChatham-A large tree branch was snapped off.
July 2008HailChatham-Nickel sized hail was reported one mile north of Chatham.
April 2006Tornado (F1)Chatham-The tornado removed roofing material from several new construction homes.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindChatham-A tree was blown down.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindChatham-Numerous trees and power lines blown down. Also, some minor house damage was reported in Chatham and a Ham radio tower was blown down in Rochester.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindChatham-Several trees and a sign blown down at a middle school.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindChatham-Few trees and power lines blown down.
August 2004Thunderstorm WindChatham-Several trees were blown down.
August 2004Tornado (F0)Chatham-A tornado briefly touched down in a field. No damage or injuries were reported.
May 2003Thunderstorm WindChatham-A large tree was snapped off, siding blown off of two houses and a basketball post was bent in half.
May 2003Tornado (F0)Chatham-A tornado briefly touched down west of Chatham. Several trees were blown down and a few homes sustained siding damage. Also, an unoccupied semi was blown over.
May 2001Thunderstorm WindChatham-In Chatham, thunderstorm winds blew a 50 foot by 50 foot section of a metal roof off of a storage facility. Also, on the south side of Springfield a large tree was blown down and another one was uprooted.
April 2000Thunderstorm WindChatham-Several trees were blown down.
June 1998Thunderstorm WindChatham-Thunderstorm winds blew down a large tree 3 miles east of Chatham.
February 2026HailChatham-no account filed
April 2025HailChatham-no account filed
May 2023HailChatham-no account filed
May 2023HailChatham-no account filed
May 2023HailChatham-no account filed
May 2023HailChatham-no account filed
May 2023HailChatham-no account filed
May 2023HailChatham-no account filed
May 2023HailChatham-no account filed
May 2023HailChatham-no account filed
May 2023HailChatham-no account filed
May 2023HailChatham-no account filed
May 2023HailChatham-no account filed
May 2023HailChatham-no account filed
May 2023HailChatham-no account filed
May 2023HailChatham-no account filed
May 2023HailChatham-no account filed
July 2023HailChatham-no account filed
July 2023HailChatham-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Sangamon 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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Route 66 South of Lake Springfield3.0 miles2009
Route 66 South of Lake Springfield4.3 miles2009
Illinois Route 4-North of Auburn4.7 miles1998
Caldwell Farmstead4.9 miles1984
Abraham Lincoln Memorial Garden5.6 miles1992
Brunk Farmstead5.6 miles1999

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 78001185 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Sangamon CountyAll 68 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.