Photograph of Scoby Power Plant and Dam — Photograph by Shinerunner, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Scobey Power Plant and Dam

Built in 1925. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. 8 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1924.

From the record

“Scoby Power Plant and Dam is a historic dam and now defunct power plant located between the towns of Ashford and Concord, near Springville, New York. The complex is located on the eastern bank of Cattaraugus Creek outside Springville.”
Wikipedia article Scoby Power Plant and Dam, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 283 National Register listings published here for Erie County · listed in 1996 · category: Building · built in 1925.

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

The listing

Address. Jct. of Scobey Hill Rd. and Cattaraugus Cr., Springville, 14141
When was it listed? September 1996
Category. building
Town. Concord town
When was it built? 1925
National Register reference number. 96000296 - 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

57 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 57 fires within 5 miles of Scobey Power Plant and Dam between 1995 and 2020, burning about 43 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 7 were 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	32
Debris and open burning	12
Arson/incendiarism	7
Smoking	2
Natural	2
Recreation and ceremony	2

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
7 August 2012	Debris and open burning	under an acre	New York Forest Rangers	THOMAS CORNERS FIRE
7 August 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
5 August 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
29 August 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
10 August 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
4 July 2003	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
31 July 2017	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
21 July 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Erie County

Mines and quarries near this property

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Scobey Power Plant and Dam: 2 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Salt. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Springville Well	Salt	Past Producer
Hagerer Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
John L. Beny Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
John L. Beny Pit and Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in Erie County

Storms near this property

12 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Springville, the town this property stands in, in 12 storm reports between 1999 and 2024: 10 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail. 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
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Springville	$15,000	no account filed
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Springville	$15,000	no account filed
September 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Springville	$10,000	Law enforcement reported trees downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Springville	$10,000	no account filed
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Springville	$10,000	no account filed
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Springville	$10,000	no account filed
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Springville	$10,000	no account filed
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Springville	$8,000	Trees and wires were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 1999	Hail	Springville	$5,000	no account filed
April 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Springville	$2,000	A tree fell on wires in Springville.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Springville	$1,000	A tree was downed on powerlines.
October 2024	Hail	Springville	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Erie County

Maps showing this location

8 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1924 USGS Ellicottville quadrangle1:62500 - 3 printings
1941 USGS Ellicottville quadrangle1:62500
1960 USGS Buffalo quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Buffalo quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1964 USGS Ashford Hollow quadrangle1:24000 - 4 printings
1967 USGS Buffalo quadrangle1:250000
1973 USGS Buffalo quadrangle1:250000
1986 USGS Olean quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

Listed places nearby

6 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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad Station	2.4 miles	1991
West End Historic District	2.6 miles	2018
Citizens National Bank	2.7 miles	1996
East Main-Mechanic Streets Historic District	2.7 miles	2002
Fiddlers Green Historic District	2.7 miles	2018
US Post Office-Springville	2.8 miles	1989

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 96000296 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Erie County	All 283 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.