Champion Mill

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

From the record

“Champion Mill is a historic flour and feed mill in Champion, in the southwestern part of the state of Nebraska, in the Midwestern United States. Built in 1888 and rebuilt in 1892 after a fire, the mill was used commercially until 1968.”
Wikipedia article Champion Mill (Nebraska), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 4 National Register listings published here for Chase County · listed in 1988 · category: District.

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 2 structuress, 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. Mill and Second Sts., Champion, 69023
When was it listed? June 1988
Category. district
Precinct. Champion-Lamar precinct
National Register reference number. 88000913 - 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

14 since 2014

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of Champion Mill between 2014 and 2020, burning about 110 acres in total. 2 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	4
Equipment and vehicle use	3
Debris and open burning	3
Natural	2
Recreation and ceremony	1
Arson/incendiarism	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
25 September 2014	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
17 September 2016	Natural	1.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
17 August 2014	Natural	1.5 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
26 July 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
14 May 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
1 May 2015	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
8 April 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	3.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
9 March 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named

Every fire recorded in Chase County

Storms near this property

60 of 89 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Champion, the town this property stands in, in 89 storm reports between 1994 and 2023: 67 hail, 16 thunderstorm wind, 4 tornado, 2 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
June 2008	Hail	Champion	$500,000	A supercell storm that produced several tornadoes also produced up to tennis ball size hail from Champion to approximately 3 miles south of Champion. The hail broke out hundreds of windows in homes and vehicles, tore holes in metal siding on homes, severely damaged roofs on buildings and vehicle bodies, and destroyed wheat and corn crops.
June 2007	Flash Flood	Champion	$450,000	Nearly stationary thunderstorms produced heavy rainfall of 4 to 10 inches causing water to flow over roadways. The flood waters over-topped the dam at Champion Lake. Water flowed across Highway 6 west of Imperial near Sand Creek and across numerous secondary roads. Highways were closed and travel was discouraged for much of the county. Many secondary roads were washed out.
May 1996	Hail	Champion	$100,000	no account filed
June 2008	Tornado (EF1)	Champion	$95,000	A supercell tornado touched down and overturned 3 pivot irrigation systems, broke off trees and 3 power poles as it moved northeast for less than a mile. The supercell also produced 3 other tornadoes in Chase County.
July 2009	Hail	Champion	$70,000	A trained storm spotter reported baseball size hail. The hail broke numerous north facing windows and damaged the siding on homes. The hail also severely damaged soybean, corn, and wheat crops southeast of Champion.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	$40,000	Large tree limbs were broken, a center pivot irrigation system was overturned, and a house roof was damaged from the intense winds.
June 2008	Tornado (EF1)	Champion	$30,000	A supercell spawned a brief tornado touchdown that overturned a pivot irrigation system. This same supercell produced 3 other brief tornadoes in Chase County.
June 2008	Tornado (EF0)	Champion	$25,000	A supercell spawned a brief tornado touchdown which destroyed small outbuildings, tore the roof of a garage off and slammed it into the west side of the house, broke a skylight on the house, and damaged the roof of the house. Baseball size hail accompanying the tornado tore holes in the metal siding on the house. This same supercell produced 3 other brief tornadoes in Chase County.
June 2006	Hail	Champion	$25,000	Hail extensively damaged corn crops and property.
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	$12,000	Thunderstorm wind blew down several 12 inch diameter trees and several sheds.
May 1998	Hail	Champion	$5,000	Large hail destroyed up to 2000 acres of wheat.
June 2009	Hail	Champion	$5,000	no account filed
June 2007	Hail	Champion	$5,000	no account filed
May 2005	Hail	Champion	$4,000	no account filed
March 2007	Hail	Champion	$3,000	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Champion	$3,000	no account filed
June 1998	Hail	Champion	$2,000	no account filed
April 2005	Hail	Champion	$1,000	no account filed
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	-	Public estimates a 60 mph wind gust.
July 2022	Hail	Champion	-	A cooperative weather observer reported golf ball size hail near Champion.
July 2022	Hail	Champion	-	Public reported quarter size hail near Champion.
July 2022	Hail	Champion	-	Public reported quarter size hail near Champion.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	-	Public estimated 60 mph wind gusts near Champion with tree damage.
July 2022	Hail	Champion	-	Emergency management reported half dollar size hail near Champion.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	-	A cooperative weather observer estimated 60 mph wind gusts.
July 2020	Hail	Champion	-	Public reported ping pong ball size hail southwest of Champion.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	-	Report of 60 mph winds along with dime size hail.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	-	Trained Spotter reported strong winds of 60 mph.
July 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	-	Large tree split in half.
July 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	-	No information available.
May 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	-	No damage reported.
August 2017	Tornado (EF0)	Champion	-	Landspout briefly touched down in an open field with no damage reported.
October 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	-	Reported by law enforcement. No major damage reported.
June 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	-	Two large trees uprooted from the wind.
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	-	Corn crops were destroyed by a combination of 60 MPH winds and pea to half inch diameter hail.
May 2011	Hail	Champion	-	Hail covered the ground.
June 2011	Hail	Champion	-	Chase county sheriff reported golf ball to baseball sized hail 2 miles east of Champion.
June 2011	Hail	Champion	-	Baseball sized hail was reported by the general public 8 miles north northwest of Champion.
June 2011	Hail	Champion	-	General public reported baseball sized hail 8 miles north northwest of Champion.
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	-	Strong winds estimated at over 60 mph blew over a twelve foot high tree.
June 2008	Flash Flood	Champion	-	Very heavy rain during the early morning hours of June 5th produced flash flooding across western portions of Chase County. Water was reported over numerous county roads from west of Champion to the Colorado border.
July 2004	Hail	Champion	-	Hail and strong winds combined to damage corn and pinto bean crops.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	-	Thunderstorm outflow winds broke off large tree branches.
June 1999	Hail	Champion	-	Hail was covering the ground.
July 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Champion	-	A power pole and lines were blown down. The sparks from the wires caused a small grass fire.
June 2023	Hail	Champion	-	no account filed
June 2023	Hail	Champion	-	no account filed
June 2023	Hail	Champion	-	no account filed
June 2023	Hail	Champion	-	no account filed
June 2022	Hail	Champion	-	no account filed
August 2020	Hail	Champion	-	no account filed
May 2019	Hail	Champion	-	no account filed
September 2019	Hail	Champion	-	no account filed
September 2019	Hail	Champion	-	no account filed
October 2017	Hail	Champion	-	no account filed
July 2017	Hail	Champion	-	no account filed
May 2016	Hail	Champion	-	no account filed
August 2015	Hail	Champion	-	no account filed
May 2015	Hail	Champion	-	no account filed
May 2015	Hail	Champion	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Chase 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

2 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	Property	Distance	Listed
	Balcony House	6.5 miles	2000
	Chase County Courthouse	6.6 miles	1990

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 88000913 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Chase County	All 4 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.