We hopped the fence and wandered through the old school yard and remains of this school. The walls were still standing but the roof had caved in from fire. I wasn’t sure if it was a school at first, but the remains of burned school desks confirmed our guess.
Who had attended this school? I always wonder what kids sat in the chairs, listening to the teacher explain about Oklahoma history or math or a science problem, while the kids gazed outdoors waiting on spring to arrive. Normally you can find a clue by looking at the walls of the school – kids with idle time on their hands like to carve their names and romances into the stone. Yet this time I had to look hard to find an inscription. I guess the teachers were a bit strict and attentive.
It was also interesting that this school, like many from the same era, had a storm cellar. After the devastation after the 2013 Moore tornado, I wondered when storm cellars became unpopular at schools? If it seemed like a good idea in the 1920’s was it not a good idea in the 1980’s?
This abandoned schoolhouse is easy to find. The roads are dirt and gravel so a pickup truck, Jeep or other rugged vehicle is recommended, although you could travel to this site with most any passenger car – if you don’t mind getting it dirty.
You can copy and paste these GPS coordinates into Google Maps to find the location. 36.058575000 -97.532147222
