Photograph of Chewelah Indian Agency — Photograph by Ian Poellet, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Old Indian Agency

Built in 1870. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

From the record

One of 19 National Register listings published here for Stevens County · listed in 1974 · category: Building · built in 1870.

Sources: 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 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 3rd St., Chewelah, 99109
When was it listed? May 1974
Category. building
Census division. Chewelah
When was it built? 1870
National Register reference number. 74001981 - 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

128 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 128 fires within 5 miles of Old Indian Agency between 1992 and 2020, burning about 185 acres in total. 28 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
Debris and open burning	37
Natural	28
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	27
Recreation and ceremony	9
Power generation/transmission/distribution	8
Equipment and vehicle use	6
Other causes	6
Smoking	2
Railroad operations and maintenance	2
Fireworks	2
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
8 September 2008	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3.0 acres	Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters	HORSESHOE LAKE
6 September 1998	Recreation and ceremony	3.5 acres	Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge	WEINER
6 September 1998	Natural	5.0 acres	Colville National Forest	INCIDENT 136
6 September 1993	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters	not named
28 September 2009	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters	SAND CANYON
23 September 2014	Natural	under an acre	Colville National Forest	DEVILS CAN
21 September 1992	Railroad operations and maintenance	under an acre	Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters	not named
21 September 1992	Railroad operations and maintenance	1.1 acres	Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters	not named

Every fire recorded in Stevens County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 84 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 84 workings within 5 miles of Old Indian Agency: 32 occurrences, 22 prospects, 15 past producers, 8 producers. 8 still produce. What was taken out: Copper, Silver, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Lead. 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
Belcher	Copper, Silver, Gold, Lead	Prospect
Chewelah Eagle	Dolomite, Limestone, Dimension	Producer
Chewelah Standard	Copper, Silver, Gold, Molybdenum	Occurrence
Chewelah Standard	Copper, Silver, Molybdenum, Gold	Past Producer
Chinto	Copper, Silver, Gold, Zinc, Arsenic, Antimony	Occurrence	Chalcopyrite, Pyrite, Sphalerite, Tetrahedrite
Chinto	Copper, Silver, Gold	Past Producer
Copper Queen	Copper, Gold, Lead, Silver	Past Producer
Eagle	Silver, Lead, Zinc, Gold, Molybdenum, Copper	Occurrence
Eagle	Silver, Lead, Gold, Copper, Zinc	Prospect
Fibco, Inc	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer

Every working recorded in Stevens County

Storms near this property

10 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Chewelah, the town this property stands in, in 10 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 3 hail, 3 flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 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
May 1998	Flash Flood	Chewelah	$50,000	Roads flooded in and around Chewelah
January 2006	Flood	Chewelah	$20,000	Heavy rains over the past week flooded all of the classrooms and the school library on the east end of the Chewelah High School causing 20,000 dollars worth of damage.
August 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Chewelah	$10,000	Collapsing thunderstorms caused downed tree limbs and numerous power outages near Chewelah and areas to the southwest. Estimated over 2000 people were without power. Time estimated from radar. No observed gusts were recorded.
July 2022	Lightning	Chewelah	$5,000	Lightning severely damaged several power poles, downed wires, and ignited a fire on a tree in Chewelah. Time estimated based on dispatch reports and radar.
September 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Chewelah	$2,000	Neighbors reported roof damage from strong winds associated with a thunderstorm.
May 2011	Flood	Chewelah	$1,000	Chewelah Creek flowed out of its banks on May 26th flooding portions of Highway 395, Lincoln Street, and Chewelah City Park. Water had dropped significantly by the \|evening of May 28th with only some residual standing water on Lincoln Street. Damage estimates were only for the park and playground equipment.
May 2023	Hail	Chewelah	-	Report was observed near Chewelah.
May 2011	Flood	Chewelah	-	Chewelah Creek rose to bank level on May 12th resulting in portions of Chewelah Park being inundated with water next to the creek. By May 16th, the creek had risen considerably out of its banks with flooding observed over Lincoln Avenue south of the park forcing its closure. The creek continued to rise through May 17th at which time water began flowing over state route 395 between mile post 206.69 and 207.81 forcing its closure as well. Flood waters approached businesses next to the park, but did not appear to make it inside any buildings.
May 1997	Hail	Chewelah	-	sheriff reports 1 inch hail
June 1996	Hail	Chewelah	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Stevens 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 74001981 in Record Group 79.
Stevens County	All 19 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.