Parson Smith Tree

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

From the record

“The Parson Smith Tree is a historic tree in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Okanogan County, Washington, located 19 feet (5.8 m) south of the Canada-US border. (Parson) Smith passed the tree during a trek through the wilderness.”
Wikipedia article Parson Smith Tree, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 16 National Register listings published here for Okanogan County · listed in 1972 · category: Object.

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 1 object as contributing to the listing.
Address. 40 mi. N of Winthrop on the Canadian border in Okanogan National Forest, Winthrop
When was it listed? March 1972
Category. object
National Register reference number. 72001279 - 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

12 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Parson Smith Tree between 1992 and 2013, burning about 373 acres in total. 11 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
Natural	11
Recreation and ceremony	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
20 September 1996	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest	TRAIL CREEK
16 September 2001	Natural	under an acre	Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest	WHITE CREEK
16 September 2001	Natural	1.0 acres	Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest	BUNKER HILL
16 September 2001	Natural	360 acres	Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest	BOUNDARY
6 August 2003	Natural	1.0 acres	Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest	BORDER CREEK
5 August 2003	Natural	7.0 acres	Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest	TRAIL CREEK
4 August 2000	Natural	under an acre	Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest	TRAIL CREEK
27 August 2001	Natural	under an acre	Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest	CENTRAL CREEK

Every fire recorded in Okanogan County

Storms near this property

16 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Winthrop, the town this property stands in, in 16 storm reports between 1999 and 2023: 5 flood, 4 heavy rain, 2 wildfire, 2 flash flood. The reports record 4 deaths and 4 injuries. 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
July 2001	Wildfire	Winthrop	4 killed, 4 hurt	The "Thirtymile" wildfire was in the mop-up stages on July 10 when excessively hot and dry conditions that afternoon caused the smoldering fire to blow up. The fire came roaring back to life, quickly spreading from 25 to 2,500 acres in just three hours. The quickly-spreading fire overran a group of 14 firefighters, causing members of the group to deploy emergency shelters. Four members of the group perished (direct), and four others were hospitalized with injuries. The Thirtymile fire was contained on July 23 after burning a total of 9,300 acres. The cost of fighting this fire exceeded $4.3 million.
May 2018	Flood	Winthrop	$100,000	Spring time snow melt caused the Chewuch River near Winthrop to rise and cause minor flooding during the second and third weeks of May. Roads and fields along the river were inundated and a few homes suffered yard inundation and first floor minor flooding.
July 2016	Debris Flow	Winthrop	$25,000	The Forest Service reported that heavy rain from thunderstorms resulted in a road washout on Ramsey Creek Road. A one mile stretch was blocked with mud and debris. The time of the event was estimated.
June 2004	Flash Flood	Winthrop	$10,000	During the afternoon of June 27th a thunderstorm dumped heavy rain over the upper Chewuch River north of Winthrop. A mud slide resulted with a two acre stretch of mountain side sliding into the Chewuch River. This caused the river to change course and inundate the forest road along the river.
July 2023	Flash Flood	Winthrop	$5,000	Multiple reports of flash flooding two miles Northwest of Winthrop. Mud and debris on road reports for West Chewuch Road, Highway 20, and Wright Road. Methow Valley Airport recorded 0.9 of an inch fell in an hour and half.
June 2011	Flood	Winthrop	$3,000	A combination of landslides and flooding along creeks and rivers resulted in the closure of numerous campsites within Perygian State Park through the first two weeks of June. Damage costs were estimated based on an average loss of revenue from closed campgrounds.
April 2018	Debris Flow	Winthrop	$2,000	A debris flow was reported blocking West Chewuch Road.
July 2016	Flood	Winthrop	$1,000	A member of law enforcement reported heavy rainfall from a thunderstorm resulted in water over Bear Creek Road about 2 miles northeast of Winthrop, WA.
July 2016	Flood	Winthrop	$1,000	A member of law enforcement reported heavy rainfall from a passing thunderstorm resulted in a minor debris flow of rocks and water over Elbow Coulee Road which is about 5 miles south southwest of Winthrop, WA.
July 2016	Flood	Winthrop	$1,000	A member of law enforcement reported heavy rainfall from a thunderstorm resulted in water over the road at highway 20 in Winthrop, WA.
August 1999	Heavy Rain	Winthrop	-	1.15" of rain in three hours
August 1999	Wildfire	Winthrop	-	200 Acre fire 8S of Winthrop
July 2010	Heavy Rain	Winthrop	-	no account filed
June 2010	Heavy Rain	Winthrop	-	no account filed
May 2010	Heavy Rain	Winthrop	-	no account filed
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Winthrop	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Okanogan 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.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 72001279 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Okanogan 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.
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.