BlockFrom the record
One of 14 National Register listings published here for Jefferson County · listed in 1972 · category: District.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
Steele City Historic District
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
The listing
- Address. Roughly bounded by Main and 2nd Sts., Gardline, and St. J. and W. RR, Steele City, 68440
- When was it listed? March 1972
- Category. district
- Precinct. Newton precinct
- National Register reference number. 72000752 - 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
34 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 34 fires within 5 miles of Steele City Historic District between 2003 and 2017, burning about 791 acres in total. 1 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 | 22 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 4 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 17 September 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 16 September 2015 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 31 August 2010 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 4 July 2017 | Fireworks | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 4 July 2012 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 2 June 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 15 June 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Washington County | 5 |
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 Steele City Historic District: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Clay. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Endicott Pit & Plant | Clay | Producer |
Storms near this property
17 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Steele City, the town this property stands in, in 17 storm reports between 1998 and 2026: 13 hail, 2 tornado, 2 thunderstorm wind. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2026 | Hail | Steele City | - | Emergency management report of hail measured at 1.50 inch in diameter. Photo of several 1.25 to 1.5 inch diameter stones. |
| August 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Steele City | - | Public reported limbs down around Steele City. |
| May 2019 | Hail | Steele City | - | Southwest of Steele City. |
| May 2019 | Hail | Steele City | - | In Steele City. |
| May 2019 | Hail | Steele City | - | In Steele City. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Steele City | - | Hail up to 1 inch in diameter was reported in the Steele City area. |
| May 2007 | Tornado (EF0) | Steele City | - | Embedded in a downburst, a more concentrated area of damage with a convergent signiture signalled a tornado tracked about 1 mile through Steele City. The tornado caused structual damage to roofs and windows. In addition, a portion of the roof of the town hall was torn off and a few trees uprooted. Some twisting of trees was noted just northeast of town as the tornado lifted. |
| May 2007 | Hail | Steele City | - | Hail up to nickel size fell around the Steele City area for several minutes. |
| May 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Steele City | - | A downburst that initially spun up a weak tornado in Steele City spread from that town northeast toward Diller. The damage path of the downburst was about a mile wide with sporadic damage for about 5 miles. Winds were estimated at around 80 mph. Trees and farm outbuildings were damaged. |
| August 2004 | Hail | Steele City | - | Hail up to 1 inch in diameter was reported in Steele City for at least 5 minutes. |
| June 2015 | Hail | Steele City | - | no account filed |
| September 2010 | Hail | Steele City | - | no account filed |
| April 2008 | Hail | Steele City | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Steele City | - | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | Steele City | - | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Hail | Steele City | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Tornado (F0) | Steele City | - | 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
4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
 | District No. 1 School of Jefferson County | 0.3 miles | 1997 |
 | Colman House | 6.7 miles | 1982 |
 | Anna C. Diller Opera House | 6.8 miles | 1988 |
| People's State Bank | 6.8 miles | 1984 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 72000752 in Record Group 79. |
| Jefferson County | All 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.
- 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.