Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo. Dale Nimiz, a historian and preservation expert, has been taking inventory of buildings in Douglas County that might be of significance, located to the southwest of Lawrence, belonged to a family that later started the Boys and Girls Club in Lawrence.

For parts of the last three years, Dale Nimz has been scouring the townships of Douglas County, cataloging every structure that may hold some historic significance. Now, he says, it’s time to put the results from that survey into use.

Along with his colleague Susan Ford, Nimz has taken a look at over a thousand buildings in Eudora, Kanwaka and, most recently, Wakarusa townships. Of that, less than 200 might be eligible for induction into the National Register of Historic Places or in the state registry.

The surveying project was created by the Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council, which is funded by the Douglas County Commission. The Heritage Council is charged with conserving — and enhancing economic activity around — the area’s natural and cultural past.

“I think we’re at the stage where we’ve collected a lot of information,” said Nimz, whose admiration for history and research is clear the more he speaks of it. “Rather than collecting more too fast, we should say ‘What are we going to do? Let’s do something about these properties.’ “

He has a few ideas. Maybe partner with the Kansas State Historic Preservation Office to offer workshops on maintaining aging structures. Or create a bus tour for students of history to visit noteworthy remnants of the area’s agrarian past, from the late 1800s to the 1950s.

“It wouldn’t be a big fundraiser, but you could make a little money from it to finance some other activities,” Nimz said.

Over the course of his survey of Wakarusa Township, which he finished in June, Nimz found several notable structures. Among them:

• A large, fairly elaborate farmhouse from a “well-to-do” family in the 1890s. Nimz said the farm — nothing of it remains other than the house — was located on “nice, level, river-bottom land, which is very productive.” The house is being rehabilitated by the owner. A memoir written by one of the original family’s children, which details her adolescence there, also survived.

• A two-room schoolhouse, once known as the Fairview School, that looks over a valley. Nimz said it was constructed in 1890, about 11 years after the first school opened in the area, and operated until 1961. “It’s kind of interesting that it lasted that long,” he said.

• A restored barn in southwest Wakarusa Township that represents the golden era of agriculture. “It was the apex of agriculture and that kind of barn represents that,” Nimz said. “That barn was created for high levels of production.”

• A 1950s ranch house accompanied with a diverse set of buildings that were all part of a seed-growing operation. The land includes, among others, a well-preserved barn from around 1900 and another “interesting and unusual example” of a quonset barn made of timber. “This is very cool,” Nimz said. “This could be a nomination (for the national register) if the owner wanted to pursue that.”

Although he’s now thinking of next steps, there still may be more surveying to come. Nimz said the Heritage Council may have Palmyra Township surveyed next, a decision he said would come in August or September.

The bus tours and workshops are just ideas at this point, but even if they were realized, he said, they wouldn’t represent the primary benefit of surveys.

At the top of that list is simple construction planning. He said an index of historic structures will be handy whenever a new road, subdivision or sewer plant building is proposed in rural parts of the county.

And then there’s the recognition and knowledge. Recognition for those who have looked after the artifacts still standing and the knowledge of what life was like in the old days of Douglas County.

“Agriculture was really important here and these buildings are an expression of that,” he said.