The 1916 Kimball Plains Schoolhouse

The Kimball Plains schoolhouse at the Cottonwood Creek Charter School in Cottonwood. Photograph taken by Jeremy Tuggle on September 28, 2022. 

Video filmed on location: September 28, 2022.

The Kimball School District was established on August 5, 1879, at Kimball Plains, a small agricultural community west of Cottonwood. That year, a schoolhouse was built for the community which was the only schoolhouse within the Kimball School District. Then in September of 1894, the Kimball Plains Schoolhouse caught fire and burned down. After the fire, the students were transferred to the Cottonwood school to advance their education. Years later, the Kimball School District was re-established on November 14, 1916, after a new schoolhouse was erected for their community that year. This school was located on the north side of Gas Point Road just east of Dry Creek and it was their second and last schoolhouse. The school closed down due to poor attendance and by 1947 or 1948 the entire schoolhouse building was relocated to Cottonwood and placed on another's school's property where it was utilized as an additional building of that school and remodeled. The school property which this 1916 clapboard style structure is located on is currently the home of the Cottonwood Creek Charter School in Cottonwood. The building is saved from demolition, but the Cottonwood Creek Charter School is looking to restore the building to its original condition sometime in the future. Special Thanks to Mark Boyle, Director of Cottonwood Creek Charter School in Cottonwood, California. Historical images provided by the Shasta Historical Society and Mark Boyle.

Link to Kimball Plains article by Jeremy M. Tuggle as mentioned in the above YouTube video: here. 

RESOURCES:


Our Schools - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, March 3, 1883

Cottonwood School Ends Spring Term - The Red Bluff Daily News newspaper of Red Bluff, April 20, 1920

Borrowed Children Keep Shasta School Alive - The Blue Lake Advocate newspaper of Blue Lake, January 31, 1931

School Districts of Shasta County 1853-1955 compiled by Veronica Satorius