The Spring School Building

The Spring School building was in use from 1890-1949 and was located 13 miles southwest of Dorris on the Sam's Neck Road at the foot of School House Hill.  In 1899 Mary M. McCraig was the teacher, and school was attended for six months by ten pupils.  The school house was donated by the Butte Valley Unified School District and brought to the Outdoor Museum in 1977.  It is a typical example of a one-room school house that once dominated the country.

The following information and black/white photos are from the Siskiyou County School History page linked from the website of the Siskiyou County Office of Education  (go to "Departments" and then to the "Instructional Media Center" page).  Information about other schools and districts mentioned in the article below can be found on the Siskiyou County School History webpage cited above.  The photo in color shows the school as it sits in the Outdoor Museum.  Visitors can enter the school to see how the interior might have looked when the school was being used.

 

Spring School as it is seen in the Outdoor Museum.  The book cited above, "History of Schools in Siskiyou County," was researched and written by Stan Balfrey in 1974.  Copies of the book can be found in the Siskiyou County Historical Society's Research Library currently housed in the Siskiyou County Museum building in Yreka, California.