Clearwater Evangelical Lutheran Church

Built in 1912 (Gothic Revival). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

From the record

“Clearwater Evangelical Lutheran Church is a rural former place of worship near the Clearwater River in Equality Township, Red Lake County, Minnesota. It served a congregation of Norwegian Americans which organized in 1898 under the name Clearwater Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.”
Wikipedia article Clearwater Evangelical Lutheran Church, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 2 National Register listings published here for Red Lake County · listed in 1999 · category: Building · built in 1912, Gothic Revival.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Co. Hwy 10 (Equality Township), Oklee, 56742
When was it listed? November 1999
Category. building
Township. Equality township
When was it built? 1912
Architectural style. Gothic Revival
National Register reference number. 99001386 - 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

6 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Clearwater Evangelical Lutheran Church between 1992 and 2015, burning about 668 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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
Arson/incendiarism	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Equipment and vehicle use	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
1 August 2003	Debris and open burning	30 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
2 May 2015	Arson/incendiarism	567 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
1 April 1992	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Red Lake Agency	not named
3 November 2014	Debris and open burning	67 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
2 October 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
15 October 1996	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Red Lake Agency	R260

Every fire recorded in Red Lake County

Storms near this property

33 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Oklee, the town this property stands in, in 33 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 19 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 1 flash 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 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Oklee	$500,000	The roof was torn off a new apartment building and blown into a field. Many trees were blown down, some into homes and powerlines. The roof was torn off of one mobile home while another was flipped over. 13 grain bins were damaged, 6 completely destroyed. The county highway department building was reduced to rubble and one truck inside was damaged.
August 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Oklee	$150,000	8 grain bins were damaged and a semi trailer was overturned.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Oklee	$5,000	The strong wind blew a trailer off its foundation and its entryway was blown off. Several trees were blown over and a pole shed was damaged.
July 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Oklee	$500	Branches were blown down.
August 2025	Hail	Oklee	-	Report of quarter size hail in Oklee.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Oklee	-	Semi truck trailer combination blown over near Oklee. Numerous large trees snapped or uprooted across lambert township. Several farmstead steel grain bins caved in, at least one collapsed. Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated from 80 to 90 mph in a 2 to 3 mile wide path. Winds in excess of 60 mph were reported over a several mile wide area. Time estimated based on radar.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Oklee	-	Numerous poplar, ash, box elder, and spruce trees were snapped or uprooted across farmsteads in Garnes and Equality townships between 440 and 448 pm cdt. A pole shed was blown open and metal sheathing and roofing spread downwind for over half a mile.
May 2022	Hail	Oklee	-	Received a video of very heavy rain accompanied by 1-inch hail via social media.
June 2022	Hail	Oklee	-	Photo and report of 1 inch hail was received via social media. Time estimated based on radar.
May 2022	Hail	Oklee	-	Hail ranging from the size of ping pong balls to golf balls was reported, with photos sent via social media.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Oklee	-	Received a report of large tree branches and limbs broken. Power outages reported.
August 2020	Hail	Oklee	-	Dime to quarter sized hail fell.
May 2016	Tornado (EF0)	Oklee	-	Two funnel clouds were noted between Brooks and Oklee between 110 and 115 PM CST, with at least one brief touchdown reported in an open field.
August 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Oklee	-	Numerous large tree branches and limbs were broken down across portions of Roland Township, resulting in widespread power outages.
September 2011	Hail	Oklee	-	Numerous nickel to quarter sized hail fell during very heavy rains and strong winds.
June 2007	Hail	Oklee	-	The hail fell near the Polk and Red Lake County line.
June 2007	Flood	Oklee	-	Basement flooding was reported in the Oklee area from the steady rain. The Lost River at Oklee jumped from around 4.9 feet on the morning of the 13th to 13.7 feet in the evening of the 15th, a total of about 9 feet.
May 2001	Tornado (F0)	Oklee	-	Several intermittent touchdowns were reported.
May 2001	Tornado (F0)	Oklee	-	Intermittent touchdowns were reported.
August 2020	Hail	Oklee	-	no account filed
June 2018	Hail	Oklee	-	no account filed
August 2015	Hail	Oklee	-	no account filed
May 2007	Hail	Oklee	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Oklee	-	no account filed
July 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Oklee	-	no account filed
June 2000	Flash Flood	Oklee	-	no account filed
June 1999	Hail	Oklee	-	no account filed
June 1999	Hail	Oklee	-	no account filed
August 1999	Hail	Oklee	-	no account filed
July 1998	Hail	Oklee	-	no account filed
July 1998	Hail	Oklee	-	no account filed
August 1997	Hail	Oklee	-	no account filed
May 1996	Hail	Oklee	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Red Lake 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 99001386 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Red Lake County	All 2 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.