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Photograph of Mason City School
Photograph by Ammodramus, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Mason City School

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

From the record

One of 14 National Register listings published here for Custer County · listed in 2006 · category: Building.

Sources: 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 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. 750 Main St., Mason City, 68855
  • When was it listed? March 2006
  • Category. building
  • Township. Algernon township
  • Architectural style. Colonial Revival architecture
  • National Register reference number. 06000103 - 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.

The ground it stands on

2,346 words

The chapter on Algernon Township in History of Custer County, Nebraska; a Narrative of the Past, with Special Emphasis Upon the Pioneer Period of the County's History, Its Social, Commercial, Educational, Religous, and Civic Developement from the Early Days to the Present Time, published 1919 names Mason City. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

The third paper published in Broken Bow was the Broken Boie Times, established in 1885, by G. W. Trefren and S. I. MeserauU. Financially, the Times was for a short time a great success, as land notices were plentiful, but, owing to some misunderstanding between the proprietors of the Times and Mr. Higgins, register of the land office at Grand Island, where most of the land notices came from, the latter induced R. E. Martin, an ex-Confederate soldier and forcible writer, to establish another Democratic paper at Broken Bow. The paper was launched in March, 1886, by R. E. Martin and J. S. Bellinger, and was christened the Statesman. To it Mr. Higgins transferred his land-office patronage, and the Statesman prospered immensely. It established a branch paper at Mason City, named the Mason City Transcript.

Passage source: History of Custer County, Nebraska; a Narrative of the Past, with Special Emphasis Upon the Pioneer Period of the County's History, Its Social, Commercial, Educational, Religous, and Civic Developement from the Early Days to the Present Time, published 1919.

The Times, not to be outdone, started a daily edition and christened it the Broken Boie Dailv Times. Messrs. Martin and Dellinger disposed of the Mason City Transcript to James Whittaker, and two or three weeks later Mr. Whittaker sold it to M. C. Warrington, who continued with the paper until 1917, when he disposed of it to James Pebles, the present owner. Martin and Dellinger dissolved partnership. Martin retained the Statesnian, while Dellinger and Walters established the sixth paper for Broken Bow, known as the Broken Bozv Jl'orld. The Daily Times and the Dailv World were soon consolidated, Mr. Walters becoming editor-in-chief and the mechanical work being done in the Times office. In 1888 Trefren and MeserauU disposed of the trood will of the Times to R. E. Martin, and about the same time the Jl'orld suspended. R. H. Miller then started the Dailv Reporter, and had the mechanical work done at the Republican office. In the course of three months the Reporter suspended and was succeeded by the Daily Republican, published by D. M. Amsberry, in connection with his weekly edition. The Daily Republican was continued until October, 1895, when the plant was leased to J. H. Chapman for one year and the daily edition was discontinued. In the fall of 1888 E. M. Webb and George S. Tappan established the Xebraska Citizen in Broken Bow. The paper continued until the following spring, when its publication was suspended. It was largely due to this paper that the .Alliance or People's Independent ticket was elected in the fall of 1889.

Passage source: History of Custer County, Nebraska; a Narrative of the Past, with Special Emphasis Upon the Pioneer Period of the County's History, Its Social, Commercial, Educational, Religous, and Civic Developement from the Early Days to the Present Time, published 1919.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Algernon Township - 2,346 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

4 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Mason City School between 2008 and 2013, burning about 15 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 burning2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Equipment and vehicle use1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
26 June 2010Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
3 March 2013Debris and open burning15 acresNebraska Forest Servicenot named
29 March 2008Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named
28 March 2008Debris and open burningunder an acreNebraska Forest Servicenot named

Every fire recorded in Custer County

Storms near this property

60 of 65 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Mason City, the town this property stands in, in 65 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 46 hail, 14 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 2 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2017Thunderstorm WindMason City$50,000A full center pivot irrigation system was flipped over south of Ansley. Time estimated from radar.
May 2004Flash FloodMason City$15,000Runoff from heavy rain accumulated quickly and washed out fences as it moved through low lying areas. Water rose up to the headlights of cars on Main Street.
July 2020Flash FloodMason City$10,000Flood waters washed out the footers of a building.
May 2007HailMason City$6,000Hail quarter to golf ball size lasted for five minutes. Several vehicles received damage.
June 2003Thunderstorm WindMason City$5,000The winds broke off numerous large tree limbs and sheared off the tops of trees. Shingles were also torn off homes in the area.
May 2000Thunderstorm WindMason City$5,000Large tree limbs down
June 2009HailMason City$5,000no account filed
May 2004HailMason City$4,000no account filed
June 2003Thunderstorm WindMason City$3,000There were numerous large tree limbs knocked down by the wind.
April 2024Thunderstorm WindMason City-Trained spotter estimated 75 MPH wind gust at this location. No damage reported.
March 2023HailMason City-Report received from social media.
July 2023HailMason City-Emergency management relayed a report of quarter size hail near Mason City.
May 2022Thunderstorm WindMason City-Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated at 60 MPH at this location.
July 2022HailMason City-Emergency management reported quarter size hail near Mason City.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindMason City-Strong wind gust was from a heat burst.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindMason City-A trained weather spotter estimated wind gusts up to 70 mph near Mason City.
July 2020HailMason City-Public reported quarter size hail in Mason City.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindMason City-Large cottonwood trees were bending over due to high winds south of Mason City.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindMason City-Cooperative observer estimated 60 mph wind gusts.
April 2013HailMason City-Hail to nickel size covered the ground.
April 2013Thunderstorm WindMason City-Winds estimated to 65 mph.
May 2012HailMason City-Very heavy rain also accompanied the hail.
August 2010Heavy RainMason City-In less than an hour the Cooperative observer measured 3.60 inches of rainfall in Mason City.
June 2009Tornado (EF0)Mason City-The tornado touched down very briefly in an open field.
June 2009Thunderstorm WindMason City-The strong thunderstorms also produced heavy rain with water running over roads.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindMason City-Numerous 6 to 8 inch diameter tree limbs were broken off along Highway 2 just east of Mason City.
May 2025HailMason City-no account filed
March 2023HailMason City-no account filed
August 2020HailMason City-no account filed
June 2020HailMason City-no account filed
May 2016HailMason City-no account filed
July 2016HailMason City-no account filed
July 2015HailMason City-no account filed
July 2015HailMason City-no account filed
July 2015HailMason City-no account filed
July 2015HailMason City-no account filed
July 2014HailMason City-no account filed
May 2014HailMason City-no account filed
June 2014HailMason City-no account filed
June 2013HailMason City-no account filed
May 2012HailMason City-no account filed
May 2012Heavy RainMason City-no account filed
August 2011HailMason City-no account filed
June 2010HailMason City-no account filed
June 2008HailMason City-no account filed
June 2008HailMason City-no account filed
May 2005HailMason City-no account filed
June 2005HailMason City-no account filed
May 2004HailMason City-no account filed
May 2004HailMason City-no account filed
May 2004Thunderstorm WindMason City-no account filed
June 2003HailMason City-no account filed
June 2003HailMason City-no account filed
June 2003HailMason City-no account filed
May 2002HailMason City-no account filed
May 2001HailMason City-no account filed
April 2001HailMason City-no account filed
May 2000HailMason City-no account filed
August 2000HailMason City-no account filed
July 1999HailMason City-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Custer 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

1 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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
First National Bank-Steinmeier Building6.3 miles2011

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 06000103 in Record Group 79.
Custer CountyAll 14 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.