Caruthersville Water Tower

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

From the record

“Caruthersville Water Tower, also known as The Lighthouse, is a historic water tower located at Caruthersville, Pemiscot County, Missouri. It was built in 1903, and is an elevated stand-pipe design stuccoed brick water tower with Gothic style embellishments.”
Wikipedia article Caruthersville Water Tower, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 2 National Register listings published here for Pemiscot County · listed in 1982 · category: Structure.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · 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. W. 3rd St., Caruthersville, 63830
When was it listed? September 1982
Category. structure
Township. Little Prairie township
National Register reference number. 82003156 - 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

3 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Caruthersville Water Tower between 2004 and 2019, burning about 16 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	2
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
20 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	11 acres	Missouri Department of Conservation	179231-07861-09202019-1650
18 August 2004	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Missouri State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
2 April 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.6 acres	Missouri Department of Conservation	179226-07861-04022019-2010

Every fire recorded in Pemiscot County

Storms near this property

29 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Caruthersville, the town this property stands in, in 29 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 14 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail, 4 tornado, 4 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
May 1993	Tornado (F1)	Caruthersville	$50,000	A tornado was first reported by county officials almost two miles south of Caruthersville at a local truck weigh station. Police officials followed the tornado as it struck two factories on the southern limit of Caruthersville producing extensive damage to buildings and cars. Damage was also done to houses on South Ward Ave with many trees and utility poles knocked down. No injuries were reported, however estimated damage was as high as $30,000. The tornado lifted, passing over the town of Caruthersville as a funnel and continued until 1430 CST, with no further touchdowns.
January 1996	Tornado (F1)	Caruthersville	$50,000	no account filed
February 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Caruthersville	$10,000	Straight line winds knocked down trees and damaged the underpinnings of a mobile home in Caruthersville.
July 1998	Flash Flood	Caruthersville	$10,000	Several businesses in Caruthersville had up to 6 inches of water in them. A few roads were flooded as well.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Caruthersville	$5,000	Large tree down on powerlines in Caruthersville.
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Caruthersville	$5,000	Straight line winds knocked trees onto power lines within the city limits of Caruthersville.
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Caruthersville	$5,000	Several trees were blown down.
May 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Caruthersville	$5,000	Several trees were knocked down.
November 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Caruthersville	$5,000	Some power lines were blown down.
April 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Caruthersville	$2,000	Downed powerlines at the corner of 6th St and Eastwood.
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Caruthersville	$2,000	no account filed
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Caruthersville	$1,000	Several large tree limbs were knocked down.
December 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Caruthersville	$1,000	Several large tree limbs were knocked down.
May 2002	Flash Flood	Caruthersville	$1,000	Several roads were flooded.
April 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Caruthersville	$1,000	A few trees were blown down.
May 2005	Hail	Caruthersville	$750	no account filed
June 1996	Hail	Caruthersville	$100	no account filed
June 1995	Hail	Caruthersville	$100	no account filed
July 2006	Flash Flood	Caruthersville	$10	South Ward Street was flooded resulting in traffic problems.
May 2020	Hail	Caruthersville	-	Wind-driven hail caused significant damage to structures and roofs in Caruthersville.
February 2015	Flood	Caruthersville	-	Heavy rain combined with melting snow and sleet to produce flooding in Caruthersville. One street was flooded and closed.
September 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Caruthersville	-	Straight line winds knocked down several trees in Caruthersville.
July 2009	Flash Flood	Caruthersville	-	Heavy rain produced flash flooding in Caruthersville. A few roads were flooded as a result.
March 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Caruthersville	-	A local radio station reported a wind gust to around 67 mph.
July 1998	Tornado (F0)	Caruthersville	-	A tornado briefly touched producing little damage.
April 1994	Tornado (F0)	Caruthersville	-	The Caruthersville Police Department reported a brief tornado touchdown.
May 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Caruthersville	-	no account filed
April 2015	Hail	Caruthersville	-	no account filed
May 2010	Hail	Caruthersville	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Pemiscot 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 82003156 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Pemiscot 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.