Home on the Range Cabin

Built in 1875 (vernacular architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

From the record

“The Home on the Range Cabin, near Smith Center, Kansas, is a log cabin built by Dr. It is associated with the song "Home on the Range", written by Higley as a poem in 1872 while living on a dugout that he built in the banks of the Beaver Creek.”
Wikipedia article Home on the Range Cabin, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 5 National Register listings published here for Smith County · listed in 1973 · category: Building · built in 1875, vernacular architecture.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 17 mi. NW of Smith Center off KS 8, Smith Center, 66932
When was it listed? March 1973
Category. building
Township. Pleasant township
When was it built? 1875
Architectural style. vernacular architecture
National Register reference number. 73000780 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

1 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Home on the Range Cabin in 2018, burning about 80 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
5 March 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	80 acres	Kansas Forest Service	2018001

Every fire recorded in Smith County

Storms near this property

60 of 92 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Smith Center, the town this property stands in, in 92 storm reports between 1993 and 2024: 53 hail, 26 thunderstorm wind, 5 tornado, 4 heavy rain. 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
May 2024	Hail	Smith Center	$500,000	no account filed
May 2021	Hail	Smith Center	$250,000	Hail ranging anywhere from pea size to 2 inches in diameter was reported in Smith Center from a number of sources.
July 2004	Hail	Smith Center	$100,000	Hail ranging in size from pennies to golf balls pounded Smith Center for about 20 minutes.
September 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$100,000	no account filed
September 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$80,000	no account filed
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$75,000	no account filed
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$65,000	no account filed
May 2008	Hail	Smith Center	$60,000	Hail up to an inch and a half in diameter fell between 836 and 841 PM in the town of Smith Center. Damage from the hail was mainly to roofs, trees and a few windows.
May 2007	Hail	Smith Center	$50,000	no account filed
May 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$50,000	no account filed
May 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$50,000	no account filed
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$50,000	no account filed
August 1998	Hail	Smith Center	$50,000	no account filed
June 1996	Hail	Smith Center	$50,000	no account filed
September 1993	Hail	Smith Center	$50,000	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$45,000	no account filed
September 1997	Hail	Smith Center	$40,000	no account filed
May 2002	Hail	Smith Center	$30,000	no account filed
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$25,000	A wind gust of 62 MPH was measured by the Smith Center Airport AWOS. Social media reports noted tree damage across town, and that about 20 percent of the town lost power.
June 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$25,000	Wind gusts estimated to be near 60 MPH accompanied quarter size hail. Tree limbs roughly 4 to 5 inches in diameter were downed.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$25,000	Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH.
May 2015	Hail	Smith Center	$25,000	no account filed
May 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$25,000	no account filed
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$25,000	no account filed
August 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$25,000	no account filed
July 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$25,000	no account filed
April 2015	Tornado (EF0)	Smith Center	$20,000	An EF-0 rated tornado occurred north-northeast of Smith Center, KS. Damage was mainly limited to minor roof damage on an outbuilding, and the path was most likely intermittent. Maximum wind speed was estimated at 75 mph. A combination of radar data, storm survey, photos, and personal accounts were used to determine the approximate location and time of the tornado.
May 2007	Hail	Smith Center	$20,000	no account filed
May 2006	Flood	Smith Center	$20,000	no account filed
June 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$15,000	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Smith Center	$10,000	Nickel to quarter size hail was reported.
May 2007	Hail	Smith Center	$10,000	no account filed
May 2007	Hail	Smith Center	$10,000	no account filed
May 2007	Hail	Smith Center	$10,000	no account filed
May 2006	Hail	Smith Center	$10,000	no account filed
May 2006	Hail	Smith Center	$10,000	no account filed
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$10,000	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$10,000	no account filed
June 1998	Hail	Smith Center	$10,000	no account filed
July 1998	Lightning	Smith Center	$10,000	no account filed
May 1993	Tornado (F0)	Smith Center	$5,000	This tornado touched down over open county and remained over open country until it dissipated.
April 2008	Hail	Smith Center	$5,000	no account filed
May 2007	Hail	Smith Center	$5,000	no account filed
August 2007	Flash Flood	Smith Center	$5,000	no account filed
July 2001	Hail	Smith Center	$5,000	no account filed
July 1996	Hail	Smith Center	$5,000	no account filed
July 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$5,000	no account filed
July 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$5,000	no account filed
July 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$5,000	no account filed
May 1994	Hail	Smith Center	$5,000	no account filed
August 1993	Hail	Smith Center	$5,000	no account filed
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$1,000	Wind gusts estimated to be near 60 MPH caused minor tree damage in Smith Center.
May 1993	Tornado (F0)	Smith Center	$500	This tornado remained over open country until it dissipated.
June 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Smith Center	$500	no account filed
April 1994	Hail	Smith Center	$500	no account filed
May 1994	Hail	Smith Center	$500	no account filed
May 1993	Hail	Smith Center	$500	no account filed
May 1994	Hail	Smith Center	$50	no account filed
June 2018	Heavy Rain	Smith Center	-	Storm total rainfall amounts of 3 to 5 inches was common across the area. The highest totals included 4.30 inches at Smith Center, 4.20 inches six miles north-northeast of Bellaire, and 3.35 inches in Lebanon.
May 2017	Heavy Rain	Smith Center	-	A 24 hour rainfall total of 3.63 inches was reported.

Every storm recorded in Smith 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.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 73000780 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Smith County	All 5 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.