BlockFrom the record
One of 35 National Register listings published here for Doniphan County · listed in 1987 · category: Building.
Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service
Herman Chrystal Barn
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
- Listed as. Chrystal, Herman, Barn - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
- Address. W of Wathena, Wathena, 66090
- When was it listed? May 1987
- Category. building
- Also known as. Byre and Bluff Barns of Doniphan County TR
- Township. Marion township
- National Register reference number. 86003538 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
Fires near this property
5 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Herman Chrystal Barn between 2015 and 2018, burning about 22 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 | 3 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 March 2018 | Smoking | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 5 |
| 31 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 12 |
| 31 March 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 14 |
| 14 March 2018 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 2018031 |
| 11 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 10 |
Mines and quarries near this property
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Herman Chrystal Barn: 1 producer. All of them still produce. 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.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wathena Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this property
20 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wathena, the town this property stands in, in 20 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 9 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 2 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2000 | Lightning | Wathena | $200,000 | Lightning struck a historic building, most recently used as a dance studio, in downtown Wathena. The fire that followed rendered the building a total loss, but did not spread to any other buildings. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | $35,000 | Thunderstorm winds blew down a tree which fell on and totaled a trailer in Wathena. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | $10,000 | Multiple trailers were damaged by thunderstorm wind gusts, estimated up to 70 mph, near the Lake Contrary area. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | $8,000 | Roof was blown off a Conoco gas station along Highway 36. |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | $5,000 | Winds estimated at 60 mph tore some of the shingles off of a roof. |
| March 2024 | Hail | Wathena | - | Photo of tennis ball sized hail in Wathena. |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | - | A storm chaser reported 65 mph winds. |
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated up to 70 mph. |
| April 2009 | Tornado (EF0) | Wathena | - | A brief EF0 tornado touchdown, was observed by a trained spotter, around one mile east of Elwood, at 1910 CST. No damage was observed. |
| June 2005 | Tornado (F0) | Wathena | - | Tornado touched down near the Pony Express Bridge and then crossed the Missouri River into St. Joseph Missouri. No significant damage was noted except to some tree limbs. |
| June 1998 | Hail | Wathena | - | The Doniphan County Sheriff's Office reported quarter-size hail during a severe thunderstorm at Wathena. |
| May 2018 | Hail | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| May 2009 | Hail | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Hail | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Hail | Wathena | - | no account filed |
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 milesOther 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 | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fred W. Kienhoff Barn | 1.6 miles | 1987 | |
| Nicholas Bohr Barn | 2.0 miles | 1987 | |
 | Wathena Fruit Growers' Association Building | 3.8 miles | 2009 |
 | Doniphan County Courthouse | 5.3 miles | 1974 |
 | Doniphan County Courthouse Square Historic District | 5.3 miles | 2002 |
 | George Kinkhead Barn | 5.4 miles | 1987 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 86003538 in Record Group 79. |
| Doniphan County | All 35 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.