SCHOOLS
By Harold Weber
Mention of the Grand Coulee Dam area appears in records from the early 1800s. Fort Okanogan was established to the West at the confluence of the Okanogan and the Columbia Rivers.
This Fort and Trading Post necessitated travel between Fort Okanogan and Fort Spokane which was near the confluence of the Spokane and the Columbia Rivers -- a distance then noted as about 250 miles.
Reference: From journals of Ross Cox from 1813 - 1816 trips between Fort Spokane and Fort Okanogan --
1826: David Douglas passed the mouth of Grand Coulee on trip from Fort Spokane to Fort Okanogan via the Columbia River.Sometime before 1900 approximately 1895 - 1897, the first school was held at the Condon Ferry in the Condon home. Miss Cora Crocket (who later became Mrs. Herb Buck) taught there and also Mrs. Arthur Strahl.
1880: Lt. Thomas Simons, Surveyor, crossed the Grand Coulee by trail at its junction with the Columbia River.
1886: From field notes of first survey near Condon Ferry by Ignatius K. Navarre, U. S. Deputy Surveyor.
1904: From Field Notes and survey by Edward A. Fitzpatrick, United Deputy Surveyer mentions Victor's, Trefry's, Atwood, Buck.
About 1900 the first school house was built of pine trees grown near the Victor Place and drift logs hauled from the Columbia by John Victor, Lafe Pike, Alec, Jim, Charlie and George Trefry. The school was erected by a spring listed by Surveyor Fitzpatrick as Sweet Water Spring. The building was 12' x 13' inside, with sod roof and dirt floor and no windows of glass, but it did have a cut-out with a sliding board closure facing the south. The first teacher was Lee McArthy of Almira.
About this same time other schools began to spring up because of population growth due to the homesteaders. I found that the first school built in the Grand Coulee was located about where the town of Grand Coulee was built. This one room school was built in 1903.
In the year 1905 the Mountain View School was built in Douglas County. This school still stands and is located about one quarter mile from where the Lee Hemmer family now live. This was School District No. 69. It was a one room building, 20' x 20'.
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It is not clear when Pike's Peak School District No. 95 was built, but it would have been after the fall of 1907 because it was built by John F. Weber and he took possession of his homestead at this time. The building was 18' x 20' and was built of remnants of lumber rafts landed at Sellers Landing and donated to them. This school was discontinued in 1923. The last teacher was Annie Wyborney. My brothers and sisters and I along with Elmer Trefry and the teacher's three children were the last students to attend. In the year 1926, the school was consolidated with Mountain View School. When consolidation occurs a new district receives a new number, which in this case was #119. This district was in use until 1931 and was consolidated with the Del Rio School and again the number was changed to #18. There was a short period of time when the District's taxes were sent to Bridgeport by a vote of the School's patrons. In 1947 it was legally consolidated with Grand Coulee School District which was made up of remnants from three counties -- Lincoln, Grant and Douglas. This newly consolidated number was 55-201-205J.
With the beginning of the Dam in 1933 the Grand Coulee citizens knew that a school was needed. Interested citizens held a meeting. Business people agreed to donate materials, other people the labor and Paul Donaldson the site so that the first school was built. thirteen students were taught by Harry Westphal. By the next spring enrollment had tripled and another building had to be built -- again with donated materials, labor and with money raised by social activities. Sixty-five students were enrolled by that year's end.
After a 1934 census showed that there were now 283 school age children in the area, a new site was chosen and donated by the Continental Land Company. After extensive studies and a lot of work, monies were donated by Grant County, Columbia Basin Commission and Washington Emergency Relief so that on August 15, 1934, the corner stone for the Greater Grand Coulee School was laid. This was done by Ida Flieshman Bartels, Treasurer of the School Committee. This building housed 12 grades and had 8 rooms. This same year another building was built at Osborne with two rooms.
New buildings had to be built due to increased enrollment and State requirements. The new Center elementary School was built followed by the high school and gymnasium. "Ludolph Field" added facilities for football and track, baseball and P.E. A building in Electric City was school for kindergarten through sixth grade.
The population began to drop in each town and with it school enrollment, so that by early 1950 the school was facing financial difficulties. Coulee Dam Schools were having the same problems. About 1954 a joint meeting of the Grand Coulee and Coulee Dam School Boards was held. The consensus of opinions agreed that consolidation was needed, but it was "too soon" to move on it.
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As the years moved by special levies had to be passed to operate both schools. At different times levies failed. Maintenance of buildings had to be postponed. In 1967 the two Districts were petitioned by citizens and Board members to place before the public a ballot to vote on consolidation. Consolidation would have made the District eligible for State and Federal monies for construction and some renovation of the old buildings. It did not pass.
Now, the Third Powerhouse construction was to start and with it another influx of people. Local Districts were hard pressed to handle the increase of students without the aid that would have been available had consolidation of the Districts passed. Special levies were run in both Coulee Dam and Grand Coulee to raise monies to purchase portable classrooms in which to house the students.
In January 1970, the Directors of Grand Coulee and Coulee Dam Schools held a joint meeting to discuss mutual problems. Harold Weber moved that the two administrators with the help of their principals formulate a program of sharing teachers. This helped to ease some financial strain and showed the feasibility of consolidation working in other areas of the school program. After several joint meeting were held the patrons of both Districts and the School Board Directors again petitioned for consolidation and this time the public voted for consolidation. New director districts were drawn and adopted and five of the original ten were retained.
The newly consolidated board consisted of A. J. Gerard, Dean Klaas, Don Everts, B. W. Jesse and Harold Weber, Chairman. The last board meeting of the Grand Coulee School District was held on February 10, 1971. The newly formed consolidated district was given a number 301J by Mrs. Alice McGrath, area superintendent. Their first meeting was held on February 26, 1971. Arnold Luiten was selected to be Superintendent and Henry J. Milhofer, Assistant Superintendent.
The Grand Coulee Dam School District now has within its border parts of Grant, Okanogan, Lincoln and Douglas counties, an area of approximately 400 square miles with an assessed valuation of $34,858,289.00. Enrollment is 1,404 students with a full time staff of 113. The District is in the midst of a modernization program of all existing buildings that are in use at this time which will amount to approximately 4 1/2 million dollars.
This is the history of one Northeast Douglas school made of logs which still stands on the Weber Brothers Ranch through consolidations to the modern School District of Grand Coulee Dam.
Harold Weber, School Director
for 20 years. Dated this
Bicentennial Year of 1976.
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