St. Paul Lutheran Church and Cemetery

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.

From the record

“Paul Lutheran Church and Cemetery is a historic Lutheran church and adjoining cemetery located in Brule Township, rural Union County, South Dakota. It is located near Richland and about 5 miles (8.0 km) northwest of Elk Point.”
Wikipedia article St. Paul Lutheran Church and Cemetery (Union County, South Dakota), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 16 National Register listings published here for Union County · listed in 2018 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

Address. 31903 475th Ave., Richland, 57025
When was it listed? February 2018
Category. building
Township. Brule township
National Register reference number. 100002103 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

30 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 30 fires within 5 miles of St. Paul Lutheran Church and Cemetery between 2002 and 2020, burning about 39 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	28
Fireworks	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.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
29 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	DONNLLEY
24 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	BURBANK
4 July 2007	Fireworks	under an acre	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	not named
1 July 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	not named
3 June 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	LINE
5 May 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	BURBANK
20 May 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.5 acres	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	14-009 BUITENBOS
2 May 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression	BURBANK OIL

Every fire recorded in Union County

Mines and quarries near this property

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of St. Paul Lutheran Church and Cemetery: 5 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
Bailey Sand & Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Bennett Sand & Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Hladky Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Horton Sand & Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
South Dakota Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Union County

Storms near this property

25 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Richland, the town this property stands in, in 25 storm reports between 2004 and 2025: 19 flood, 5 thunderstorm wind, 1 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
April 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Richland	$50,000	Thunderstorm winds blew down trees and power lines.
September 2019	Flood	Richland	$10,000	After excessive two-day rainfall during September 10-12 (generally 3 to 4 inches around Sioux Falls, 4.72 inches at Canton, 2.51 inches at Hawarden), the Big Sioux River near Richland (gage site BSRS2) reached the 3rd highest stage on record of 6.51 feet above flood stage on September 17. Significant amounts of the agricultural flood plain were inundated, and numerous roads were closed including South Dakota Highway 50 and Iowa Highway 3.
October 2019	Flood	Richland	$5,000	Rainfall around October 1, which averaged 1.00 to 1.50 inches around Sioux Falls and 2.00 to 3.50 inches in the Rock River Basin and around Hawarden and Akron, pushed the Big Sioux River near Richland (gage site BSRS2) into minor flood. The river crested 1.40 feet above flood stage on October 8. Significant flooding of agricultural land occurred, with a few county and township roads briefly inundated near the river. Property damage costs are rough estimates.
September 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Richland	$5,000	Winds snapped a few large trees off a few feet above the ground. Lots of tree limbs down, and numerous shingles removed from house.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Richland	$3,000	Several trees were taken down by strong thunderstorm winds. Property damage amounts are rough estimates.
July 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Richland	-	Two large branches were broken out of a healthy tree.
July 2024	Flood	Richland	-	Flooding continued from June on the Big Sioux River near Richland, with declining river levels. The river fell below flood stage on the morning of July 7th.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Richland	-	Thunderstorm winds downed a large tree branch in Richland.
June 2024	Flood	Richland	-	The Big Sioux River near Richland rose above flood stage the afternoon of June 21st, cresting around 11.7 feet above flood stage (1128.7 feet) on June 23rd. This crest is in the Major Stage and broke the previous record. The river stayed above flood stage into July. For a more comprehensive description of flood damage, please see other entries for Union County.
April 2023	Flood	Richland	-	The Big Sioux River near Richland, SD rose above flood stage on the morning of April 12th before cresting around 1.36 feet above flood stage (1118.36 feet) on April 15th. The river then fell below flood stage on the evening of April 16th.
March 2020	Flood	Richland	-	With rainfall of 1.72 inches 6 miles north northeast of Elk Point, 1.58 inches at Rock Valley, 1.51 inches at Canton and 1.37 inches at Akron, the Big Sioux River near Richland (gage site BSRS2) rose above flood stage late month. The river crested at 1.62 feet above flood stage on March 31, resulting in significant flooding of agricultural land. The river remained at minor flood stage at the end of the month.
April 2020	Flood	Richland	-	A continuation of minor flooding from March, the Big Sioux River near Richland (gage site BSRS2) began the month 1.67 feet above flood stage, with a steady and slow fall to below flood stage by April 5. Significant agricultutal lands near the river remained flooded.
June 2019	Flood	Richland	-	The Big Sioux River near Richland (gage site BSRS2) crested 2.43 feet above flood stage on June 29, causing significant flooding of crop and pasture land. The river remained in minor flood stage at the end of the month.
June 2019	Flood	Richland	-	A continuation of flooding from May, the Big Sioux River near Richland (gage site BSRS2) began the month at 4.71 feet above flood stage. Significant amounts of agricultural land remained flooded, and further impeded spring planting.
March 2019	Flood	Richland	-	Snow melt and heavy rainfall (measured 2.12 inches at Hawarden and 1.75 inches at Akron) resulted in extensive flooding of agricultural land in the flood plain. South Dakota Highway 50 and Iowa Highway 3 were both inundated by water for numerous days, with several farm buildings engulfed in flood waters. The Big Sioux River near Richland (gage site BSRS2) reached the second highest crest on record at 7.5 feet above flood stage on March 16. The river remained in moderate flood stage at the end of the month.
July 2019	Flood	Richland	-	A continuation of flooding from June, the Big Sioux River near Richland (gage site BSRS2) crested 2.08 feet above flood stage on July 7 and 2.36 feet above flood stage on July 20, resulting in significant flooding of crop and pasture land.
May 2019	Flood	Richland	-	This is a continuation of flooding from April. The Big Sioux River near Richland (gage site BSRS2) remained in flood through the month. Late month rains pushed the river to a crest at 5.21 feet above flood stage on May 30. Significant agricultural flooding persisted, with no opportunity for spring planting throughout the flood plain. A few farm levees were overtopped on the South Dakota side with flooding of several outbuildings. The river remained at major flood stage at the end of the month.
April 2019	Flood	Richland	-	Runoff from occasional precipitation in late March and April maintained significant flooding of agricultural and pasture lands near the Big Sioux River. The Big Sioux River near Richland (gage site BSRS2) crested at 3.77 feet above flood stage on April 10. Moderate flooding continued at the end of the month.
June 2018	Flood	Richland	-	A week of periodic heavy rainfall ending June 26 resulted in a widespread 5 to 9 inches of rainfall, much of which occurred on June 20, 24 and 25. Specific weekly totals included 7.47 inches at Canton, 9.15 inches at Rock Valley, 4.47 inches at Akron and 5.01 inches at Hawarden. Major flooding occurred with South Dakota Highway 50 as well as Iowa Highway 3 going under water. Significant amounts of crop and pasture land were inundated as the river crested near Richland (gage site BSRS2) 7.4 feet above flood stage on June 24. The river remained at major flood stage at months end.
July 2018	Flood	Richland	-	Crop and pasture land near the Big Sioux River was severely impacted as river levels climbed to 4.6 feet above flood stage near Richland (gage site BSRS2) on July 1.
September 2018	Flood	Richland	-	Widespread upstream rainfall in the Big Sioux basin from September 18-20 totaled generally 5 to 10 inches, resulting in major flooding. A few farm buildings were flooded with widespread crop and pasture land flooding as the Big Sioux River near Richland (gage site BSRS2) crested 6.2 feet above flood stage on September 23. The river remained in minor flood stage at the end of the month.
October 2018	Flood	Richland	-	A steady moderate rainfall during October 9-10 - resulting in 1.50 to 2.00 inches of rainfall - produced yet another period of moderate flooding. Significant amounts of agricultural land near the river were inundated. The Big Sioux River near Richland (gage site BSRS2) crested 3.1 feet above flood stage on October 14.
May 2018	Flood	Richland	-	Runoff from periods of heavier rainfall on top of already high river levels produced minor flooding of lowland agricultural areas along lower portions of the Big Sioux River. River levels reached 1.0 feet above flood stage near Richland (gage site BSRS2) on May 14.
October 2018	Flood	Richland	-	A continuation of flooding from September, river levels on the Big Sioux River near Richland (gage site BSRS2) continued to fall in early October. Impacts were limited to minor agricultural flooding.
August 2017	Hail	Richland	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Union 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

4 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
South Dakota Dept. of Transportation Bridge No. 64-061-199	2.3 miles	1993
Junction City Rest Stop Tipi	2.6 miles	2015
Charles Murtha House and Brick Yard	5.2 miles	1982
United Brethren Church	7.6 miles	2001

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 100002103 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Union County	All 16 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.