Fern School

Built in 1921. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

From the record

“Fern School is a historic school in the town of Fern, Wisconsin. The school, located on Wisconsin Highway 101 3 miles (4.8 km) north of County Highway C, was built in 1921 and has also served as the Fern Town Hall.”
Wikipedia article Fern School, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 5 National Register listings published here for Florence County · listed in 1981 · category: Building · built in 1921.

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 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. SW of Florence on WI 101, Florence, 54121
When was it listed? March 1981
Category. building
Town. Fern town
When was it built? 1921
National Register reference number. 81000043 - 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

27 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 27 fires within 5 miles of Fern School between 1992 and 2016, burning about 5 acres in total. 1 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
Equipment and vehicle use	9
Recreation and ceremony	6
Power generation/transmission/distribution	4
Debris and open burning	4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1
Smoking	1
Arson/incendiarism	1
Natural	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
12 August 2007	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
12 August 2007	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
6 June 2008	Natural	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
10 June 2000	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
8 May 1992	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
8 May 1992	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
8 May 1992	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
8 May 1992	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Florence 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 Fern School: 2 producers, 2 occurrences. 2 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
Sea-Lion Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Seven Mile Creek Sand Deposit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Occurrence
Township of Fern Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Truman Smith Gravel Deposit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Occurrence

Every working recorded in Florence County

Storms near this property

13 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Florence, the town this property stands in, in 13 storm reports between 1995 and 2021: 7 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 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
July 1999	Flash Flood	Florence	$1,580,000	no account filed
April 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Florence	$120,000	no account filed
August 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Florence	$5,000	no account filed
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Florence	$1,500	no account filed
June 2021	Hail	Florence	-	Penny size hail fell in Florence.
June 2011	Hail	Florence	-	A thunderstorm produced penny size hail that covered the ground in Florence.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Florence	-	Thunderstorm winds downed trees on State Highway 70 and County Road N.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Florence	-	Trees down at State Highway 70.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Florence	-	Thunderstorm winds downed several trees near Florence.
April 2004	Hail	Florence	-	no account filed
September 2002	Hail	Florence	-	no account filed
December 2001	Hail	Florence	-	no account filed
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Florence	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Florence 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 81000043 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Florence County	All 5 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.