Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
From the record
“The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Salem Church, also known as Salem Church, in Wakefield, Nebraska, was built during 1905-1906 and was added to the National Register in 1983. It is a Late Gothic Revival-style church located off Nebraska Highway 35.”
Wikipedia article Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Salem Church, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 5 National Register listings published here for Dixon County · listed in 1983 · category: Building.
National Register reference number.83001088- 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.
Is bounded on the north by Springbank, east by Emerson, south by Wayne county and west by Logan. The justly celebrated Logan river, and valley from two to three miles wide, passes through the southwestern part of the township, furnishing the excellent water power facilities which have been utilized by the flouring mills at Wakefield village.
One of the first settlers in this part of the county was C. T. Barto, whose frontier experiences here form an interesting part of the history of Wakefield. C. T. Barto was born in Bradford county. Penn., February 8th. 1837. His father. N. H. Barto, who was born at Bainbridge. N. Y., 1812, and still living, removed to Chemung county, N. Y.. near Elmira in 1843. C. T. Barto married Estella Cooley, January 3rd, L861, and removed to Illinois in April. 1861. There they rented a farm in DeKalb county, which they afterwards bought. In 1868 they sold their farm and started on their pilgrimage west and located in what is now Wakefield township on May 3rd. 1869. At that time the nearest settler on the road to Sioux City was Boedkey, twelve miles east of Wakefield, and the next Jesse Wigle, twenty-one miles east of Barto's place on Wigle creek, two miles south of the present town of Homer. South there was no settlement short of the Elkhorn river. West, no settlement short of Norfolk, at that time called Yellowbanks. The nearest postoffice was twenty-four miles east in Dakota county and Major C. H. Potter was postmaster, and there also was located the nearest flouring mill run by a man named David and now operated by Sam Coombs. North there was practically no settlement nearer than South Creek, the Pomeroys settling in Springbank in '70 or '71, and the Herfels and George 0. Lampher about the same time.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Salem Church
between 2013 and 2017, burning about 91 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
Misuse of fire by a minor
1
Recreation and ceremony
1
Debris and open burning
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Wakefield, the town this property stands in, in 28 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 15 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 2 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.
Water was over Highway 20 between 583 Avenue and 5835 Avenue. In addition, flooding resulted in extensive damage to public infrastructure including numerous county and township roads, culverts, and some bridges.
A tornado, crossing into Dixon County from Wayne County, severely damaged the roofs of two houses, one of which was a manufactured house, and caused damage to the siding and windows of the houses. Windows of at least one other house were blown out. The tornado also overturned a camper, destroyed or severely damaged a grain bin, numerous farm outbuildings, farm storage buildings, several pieces of farm equipment, and flattened corn crops in several areas. The tornado caused tree damage along its path, including trees uprooted and snapped off at the trunks, and blew down power poles and power lines.
A tornado, crossing into Dixon County from the south, severely damaged the roof and garage of a farm home. The tornado also blew down power poles and lines, and caused tree and crop damage.
Thunderstorm winds downed several large trees. Crop damage is an estimate from insured losses. Information provided by the United States Department of Agriculture.
During crop planting season, prolonged flooding led to the loss of or inability to plant crops across the area. Crop loss estimates provided by the United States Department of Agriculture.
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.
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.
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