Big Blue River Bridge

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

From the record

“The Big Blue River Bridge near Surprise, Nebraska is a pin-connected Pratt truss bridge that was built in 1897. It was designed and built by the Canton Bridge Co. with steel fabricated by the Jones & Laughlin Steel Co.”
Wikipedia article Big Blue River Bridge (Surprise, Nebraska), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 10 National Register listings published here for Butler County · listed in 1992 · category: Structure.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. Twp. Rd. over Big Blue R., 1 mi. SE of Surprise, Surprise, 68667
When was it listed? June 1992
Category. structure
Also known as. Highway Bridges in Nebraska MPS
Township. Read township
National Register reference number. 92000708 - 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

4 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Big Blue River Bridge between 2009 and 2019, burning about 2 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
Equipment and vehicle use	3
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.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
5 April 2013	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
3 April 2013	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
22 April 2009	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
9 November 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Nebraska Forest Service	not named

Every fire recorded in Butler County

Storms near this property

31 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Surprise, the town this property stands in, in 31 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 9 flood, 8 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 3 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
September 2014	Flood	Surprise	$5,000	The Big Blue River rose above flood stage on the evening of the 11th, and then crested in the early morning on the 12th before falling below flood stage later on the same day. The flooding was minor and confined to low-lying areas along the river.
June 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Surprise	$3,000	no account filed
July 2011	Flood	Surprise	$1,000	Rainfall of 3 to 5 inches fell across sections of the upper Big Blue River west of Surprise. The heavy rain caused the Big Blue River near Surprise to exceed its 7 foot flood stage for a little over 24 hours. The flooding affected mainly agricultural lowlands along the river.
May 2011	Flood	Surprise	$1,000	Rainfall of around 3 inches in several hours caused flooding along the upper reaches of the Big Blue River near Surprise. The river near Surprise crested at little over 8 feet a little before midnight CST on the 12th, flood stage is 7 feet. Flooding mainly affected agricultural lowlands but also flooded a county road or two in the area.
May 2011	Flash Flood	Surprise	$1,000	Heavy rain, around 3 inches in a few hours in the Surprise area, caused the Big Blue River and some small tributaries to flood in the Surprise area. The flooding mainly affected agricultural lowlands, but a few roads were also flooded for a bit.
July 2024	Flood	Surprise	-	Flooding from excessive rain runoff was noted at the Surprise river gauge (SRPN1) along the Big Blue River in southwestern Butler county. The river gauge crested at 2 am CST on the 2nd at a height of 7.57 feet. Flood stage continued until 2 am CST on the 4th.
October 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Surprise	-	Emergency Manager relayed a report of a center pivot that had flipped in the storm. The time was estimated by radar.
October 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Surprise	-	Emergency Manager reported a roof ripped off of a shed. The time was estimated by radar.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Surprise	-	Public reported damage to agriculture buildings on farm.
May 2019	Heavy Rain	Surprise	-	Measured 3.0 inches of rain in Surprise in 24 hours.
May 2019	Heavy Rain	Surprise	-	Overnight rainfall of 2.78 inches.
May 2016	Flood	Surprise	-	Minor flooding was observed along the Big Blue River near the city of Surprise. The river crested at 9 feet on the 14th. This led the flooding of agricultural land along the river, as well as Country Road 24 1/2 downstream of Surprise.
July 2014	Hail	Surprise	-	A trained spotter just north of the town of Surprise reported hail up to baseball size. The hail continued south into town where reports of golf ball to hen egg size hail were reported.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Surprise	-	Center pivot was flipped over and a grain bin was damaged.
May 2011	Hail	Surprise	-	Golf ball-size hail fell near Surprise from the first of 2 supercell thunderstorms that hit the area within an hour and half or so. The hail from the storms covered the ground several inches deep that stayed on the ground for a few hours.
May 2011	Flash Flood	Surprise	-	Several slow moving thunderstorms crossed the Surprise area dropping around 2 to 3 inches of rain in a few hours. This produced flash flooding over at least one road in or near Surprise. Damage due to flooding was minimal, however. The storms also dropped large hail in the region and a funnel or possible brief tornado.
May 2011	Heavy Rain	Surprise	-	Rainfall of close to 3 inches fell in a few hour period in the Surprise area. The rain caused flash flooding along parts of the upper reaches of the Big Blue River.
June 2008	Flood	Surprise	-	Heavy rain producing thunderstorms that tracked across the Big Blue River basin on June 4th caused the Big Blue River to flood from near Surprise downstream into Seward county south of Ulysses for the second time in a week. This time the crest was much higher and the water remained above flood stage longer due to additional heavy rain producing thunderstorms from June 5th through early on the 8th. The flooding from this event began during the early morning hours of June 5th and in Butler county it continued into the early morning hours of June 11th. The river at Surprise reached a crest of 11.3 feet around 7pm CDT on June 5th, flood stage is 7 feet. The flooding closed many county roads and a few highway spurs from near Surprise downstream through Ulysses. The flooding around Ulysses hampered tornado cleanup. Farmland was also flooded. The North Branch of the Big Blue River also flooded for a while on June 5, which caused the closure of Highway 92 between northbound Highway 15 and northbound Highway 81.
June 2008	Flood	Surprise	-	This flooding event along the Big Blue River continued from late May when heavy rainfall during the evening of May 29th caused the Big Blue River to flood from near Surprise downstream into Seward county south of Ulysses. The flooding began during the early morning hours of May 30th and in Butler county it continued into the late morning hours of June 1st. The river at Surprise reached a crest of 7.7 feet at 915pm CDT on May 31st, flood stage is 7 feet. The flooding affected mainly just agricultural lowlands.
May 2008	Flood	Surprise	-	Heavy rainfall during the evening of May 29th caused the Big Blue River to flood from near Surprise downstream into Seward county south of Ulysses. The flooding began during the early morning hours of May 30th and in Butler county it continued into the late morning hours of June 1st. The river at Surprise reached a crest of 7.7 feet at 915pm CDT on May 31st, flood stage is 7 feet. The flooding affected mainly just agricultural lowlands, but a few county roads were flooded.
June 2008	Hail	Surprise	-	A few hailstones approached baseball-size in the Surprise area which busted a few windshields. The hail was from the same supercell thunderstorm that produced a tornado in the Ulysses area.
August 2007	Flood	Surprise	-	Flooding was observed along the Big Blue River from near Surprise to around Ulysses. The flooding closed a few county roads and also flooded some agricultural lowlands.\|\|The Big Blue River at Surprise was above its 7 foot flood stage from around 445 am CDT on 8/8 until 345 am on 8/11. The river crested just under 9.5 feet around 1130 pm CDT on 8/9, but observed a 12-18 hour high water flow of around 9.3 to 9.5 feet centered on that time.
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Surprise	-	Thunderstorm winds were estimated at 60 mph by a trained spotter near Surprise.
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Surprise	-	Spotters estimated thunderstorm winds gusted to 65 mph east of town.
September 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Surprise	-	A downburst that encompassed the Surprise tornado this evening had a footprint that was approximately 10 miles long by 3 miles wide. A NWS storm survey estimated that wind speeds were around 80 mph with a maximum gust of possibly up to 100 mph which snapped several power poles. In addition to the snapped poles the downburst winds flipped several center pivots, damaged trees, flattened crops and cause minor to moderate structual damage throughout a 28 square mile area.
September 2006	Tornado (F2)	Surprise	-	A tornado did extensive tree damage and some structual damage throughout the town of Surprise including destroying a mobile home and tearing the roof off of a bar. The tornado was embedded in a larger downburst area that did damage over a 28 square mile area surrounding Surprise according a NWS storm survey. The tornado was rated an F2 in Surprise, where it initially touched down, and then weakened and lifted a few minutes later 1 mile northeast of town.
May 2011	Hail	Surprise	-	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Surprise	-	no account filed
April 2002	Hail	Surprise	-	no account filed
July 2002	Hail	Surprise	-	no account filed
June 1999	Hail	Surprise	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Butler 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	Property	Distance	Listed
	Surprise Opera House	1.0 miles	1988

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 92000708 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Butler County	All 10 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.