Jefferson Old Town Bowstring Truss

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

From the record

One of 10 National Register listings published here for Jefferson County · listed in 1990 · category: Structure.

Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. Off US 59, Oskaloosa, 66066
When was it listed? January 1990
Category. structure
Also known as. Metal Truss Bridges in Kansas 1861-1939 MPS
Township. Oskaloosa township
National Register reference number. 89002186 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

48 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 48 fires within 5 miles of Jefferson Old Town Bowstring Truss between 2003 and 2020, burning about 293 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 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
Debris and open burning	26
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	12
Arson/incendiarism	5
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Smoking	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
11 September 2018	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Kansas Forest Service	236
5 August 2018	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Kansas Forest Service	208
2 August 2005	Equipment and vehicle use	3.0 acres	Jefferson County	not named
26 July 2003	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.0 acres	Jefferson County	not named
2 July 2006	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Jefferson County	not named
13 June 2018	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Kansas Forest Service	163
7 April 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Kansas Forest Service	95
5 April 2018	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Kansas Forest Service	4000055

Every fire recorded in Jefferson County

Storms near this property

60 of 101 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Oskaloosa, the town this property stands in, in 101 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 47 hail, 42 thunderstorm wind, 4 tornado, 3 flood. 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 2005	Flash Flood	Oskaloosa	$80,000	Fast flowing water across several rural roads.
May 2002	Tornado (F1)	Oskaloosa	$50,000	A short lived tornado touched down in Oskaloosa and damaged a seed mill and other buildings.
May 2002	Tornado (F1)	Oskaloosa	$10,000	A short lived tornado touched down near Oskaloosa and damaged buildings, roofs, and power lines.
May 2002	Tornado (F0)	Oskaloosa	$5,000	A tornado briefly touched down northeast of Oskaloosa and damaged power lines.
May 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$2,000	Strong winds downed power lines near Oskaloosa.
June 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$2,000	Strong winds blew windows out of a house and uprooted a large tree.
May 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$2,000	no account filed
June 2005	Tornado (F0)	Oskaloosa	$500	This brief weak tornado remained mainly over open country but did damage a shed.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Estimated 70 mph winds in Oskaloosa.
October 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Emergency manager estimated 60 mph gust in Oskaloosa.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Estimated 90 mph winds. Power lines down and a structure fire reported in the area.
June 2023	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	Quarter sized hail reported.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Spotter reported several large trees snapped about 8 feet above the ground and many large branches broken off.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Tree limb about 5 inches in diameter fell on a house.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Numerous trees down throughout the town of Oskaloosa.
July 2023	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	Emergency manager reported quarter sized hail.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Wind estimate from the emergency manager.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Measured on a personal weather station.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Measured on a personal weather station.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Measured on a Kansas mesonet station.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Reported by the Emergency Manager.
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Report of a 70 mph wind gust.
June 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Delayed report of a 5 foot diameter tree snapped at the base and laying over 94th and Marion Road.
December 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Multiple power poles down, large barn blown down at Topeka and Union Street.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Power poles down near Oskaloosa.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Several 6-8 inch diameter limbs down.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Wind gust to around 70 mph.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Wind gusts at least 70 MPH at 134th and US 59.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Winds estimated to be 70 MPH at Marshall Road and K-92.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Power lines were reported down approximately 4 miles north of Oskaloosa.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	A large tree was blown over, blocking portions of Highway 59.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Damage to metal roofs at a lumber yard on HWY 59.
May 2011	Funnel Cloud	Oskaloosa	-	An emergency manager reported a funnel cloud near US 59 and Fairview Road near Oskaloosa.
May 2011	Funnel Cloud	Oskaloosa	-	A trained spotter reported a brief funnel cloud near Oskaloosa.
August 2009	Flood	Oskaloosa	-	North of Highway 92, an officer reported some water across most of the north-south roads.
April 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Power lines down in town.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	The roof was blown off a new barn, and several trees were blown down near the residence of the citizen.
June 2005	Funnel Cloud	Oskaloosa	-	Several funnel clouds were reported in the area and one was captured on live tv from Kansas City television station helicopter.
November 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	Tree down.
March 2001	Flood	Oskaloosa	-	Heavy rains of one to 3 inches caused many small creeks and streams to overflow their banks and spread water over roadways. Several roads were reported impassable for a time.
August 2019	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
May 2016	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
May 2014	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
April 2011	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
May 2011	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
May 2011	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
June 2011	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
September 2010	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
April 2009	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
April 2009	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
March 2006	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Oskaloosa	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Jefferson 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

3 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
Newell-Johnson-Searle House	0.1 miles	2017
Union Block	0.3 miles	1973
Methodist Episcopal Church of Oskaloosa	0.4 miles	2025

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 89002186 in Record Group 79.
Jefferson County	All 10 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.