The Excelsior Schoolhouse Foundation

Located at the end of Foster Road near the present-day Gabrielson Ranch, and near the Middle Fork of Cottonwood Creek in southwestern Shasta County, California, is the concrete foundation of the Excelsior schoolhouse along with its accompanying water well. This historic schoolhouse was built in 1881 which helped establish the Excelsior School District on August 2, 1881. It was the only schoolhouse at that time within the boundary lines of this school district. In 1915, Miss Ruth Payne was the teacher at this schoolhouse.

Early on, this region was home to a gold mining camp called Roaring River, and residents lived in between the localities of Roaring River and Millsaps which also sprang up there, some of those rural residents were mostly farmers and stock raisers who had families with children who attended school at the Excelsior schoolhouse which is why this school existed in such a remote area of the county south-west of Janesville (now Gas Point.) After thirty-seven years of housing local school children, the Excelsior schoolhouse was closed down by its trustees in 1918, due to the lack of attendance at the school, which abolished the Excelsior School District, and left the building abandoned. During its abandonment this schoolhouse was not kept up to county code and regulations by its trustees at that time and it fell into disrepair.

Above: this 1885-1915 map shows the general region of the Middle Fork of Cottonwood Creek. The localities of Millsaps and Roaring River are included on it. Millsaps was named for Andrew Millsaps who along with his wife Alice homesteaded the area in the 1880s. Source: CalTopo. 

Six years later, in 1924, another schoolhouse was erected near the Middle Fork of Cottonwood Creek, this school was called the Middle Fork schoolhouse which was named after its namesake the Middle Fork of Cottonwood Creek. Due to this new school, the trustees of this new schoolhouse voted to reestablish the Excelsior School District, on February 6, 1924, and the boundary lines were updated so other schools in the region wouldn't be affected by the change. The reason for this new school was because of the large family of A.S. Duncan, a local farmer, whose eight of ten school aged children caused the reestablishment of the historic school district which lasted until the 1940s. 

A 1959 Metsker's map, of Shasta County, shows the Excelsior schoolhouse was located in Township 29, North Range 6 West, in Section 8 which identifies this school as the Excelsion schoolhouse, and not Excelsior schoolhouse, which is odd. The owner of this property at that time was E. Marx. The Excelsior schoolhouse and the Middle Fork schoolhouse also appears on a surveyed map of historic Shasta County school locations from January of 1992. Records were not kept documenting the fate of this schoolhouse to its present-day demolished condition. The photographs below will show you what remains of this historic foundation. 

Above: the abandoned foundation of the historic Excelsior schoolhouse with its accompanying water well. A left side view of what would have been the front of the schoolhouse. Note the tree above. This picture was taken by Jeremy Tuggle on January 8, 2023.

Above: the concrete and stone water well of the historic Excelsior schoolhouse. This photograph was taken by Jeremy Tuggle on January 8, 2023.

Above: a look inside the concrete and stone water well of the Excelsior schoolhouse which is plugged and filled with debris and oil drums. See the stonework inside it. This photograph was taken by Jeremy Tuggle on January 8, 2023.

Above: a look at the rear of the schoolhouse foundation with a staircase. Foster Road curves around the property of the schoolhouse. This photograph was taken by Jeremy Tuggle on January 8, 2023.

Above: a look at the front main entrance of the Excelsior schoolhouse. Note the tree in back of it. This photograph was taken by Jeremy Tuggle on January 8, 2023.

Above: this undated photograph of the Excelsior school shows exactly how the schoolhouse appeared. Note the tree in back of it, it's the same tree which is still standing in the above photographs. Courtesy of Shasta Historical Society.

RESOURCES:

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

Make School Census Returns - The Sacramento Daily Union newspaper of Sacramento, May 1, 1910

Teachers Chosen - The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, August 14, 1915

Family of Ten Aids School - The Healdsburg Tribune newspaper of Healdsburg, February 8, 1924

Metsker Maps, date surveyed: September 1959

Original School Location Map, of Shasta County, California, date surveyed: January 1992.

Today In History - The Redding Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding, May 3, 2014

THE SITE OF THE FORMER EUREKA SCHOOLHOUSE ON SALT CREEK (1875-1980)

Above: the Eureka Schoolhouse is pictured here with Olive (Meyer) Chatham (1881-1980) standing beside it. She was educated here as a child, and later in life, she was employed here as a teacher. She was a daughter of Shasta County pioneers Frederick Valentine Meyer Sr., and Caroline Louise (Notten) Meyer of Cow Creek. This photograph was taken in 1974. This building was demolished in 1980. Courtesy of Shasta Historical Society.

The Eureka School District, of Shasta County, held this school's grand opening on August 3, 1875, which pre-dated the establishment of the town of Bella Vista. The Eureka schoolhouse was a one-room clapboard style structure with a stove. The property included a well on the lot it stood on, and an outhouse. Today, nothing remains of these additions. This building was built primarily for education purposes and community meetings in the Cow Creek region. This area at that location was an agricultural area before it evolved into a busy lumber community known today as Bella Vista. 

This building was located a few hundred feet north of Salt Creek and in between the Meyer and Lemm family ranches. It was the only school within the boundaries of the Eureka School District. By the 1970s, the building was left abandoned, and the structure was not brought up to county code and regulations for it to be salvaged. Then in 1980 this schoolhouse was demolished after it was in existence for 105 years. Today, the lot this schoolhouse formerly occupied remains vacant however the landscape hasn’t changed much over the years.

The following is a partial listing of known schoolteachers at the Eureka Schoolhouse:

1887 - Mary (Meyer) Love 

1891 - Mary (Meyer) Love

1895 - Annie Durkee

1897 - Mary (Meyer) Love

1899 - Alma Sheppard

1906-1907 - Katherine (Smith) Lemm

1908 - Donna Dennis

1911-1912 - Olive (Meyer) Chatham

1912-1913 - Franklin R. Love

1915 - Ethel M. Williams

Above: formerly located on this flat surface of grassy land just off of Blue Sky Road (formerly Aloha Road) outside of Bella Vista, and a few hundred feet north of Salt Creek is the site belonging to former Eureka Schoolhouse. This land is located on private property. This photograph was taken by Jeremy Tuggle on September 27, 2022.

Resources:

Shasta County School Districts Plan Merger - The Chico Record newspaper of Chico, March 20, 1920

School Districts of Shasta County, 1853-1955

The Meyer Family written by Edna (Chatham) Wallace and Suzanne Kershaw, The Covered Wagon 1974, published by Shasta Historical Society.

The Meyer Family Memories of Olive (Meyer) Chatham written by an unknown author, date unknown. Available at the Shasta Historical Society.

VF 979.424 Bella Vista on file at Shasta Historical Society

Shasta County’s Historical Rural School Eureka School by Ruth Martin and Jane Long PF 371.9 Martin (available at the Shasta Historical Society.)

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

The Historic Igo Schoolhouse

The historic Schoolhouse located at the Shasta District Fairgrounds in Anderson. This photograph was taken by Jeremy Tuggle on June 19, 2019.

In 1872, Igo pioneer and resident Charles N. Kingsbury, an active miner and a native of New York, erected a one room school house which was used as a school in the town of Igo on the property of the present Igo-Ono School. The wood was hauled into Igo from Shingle Creek at Shingletown. It included a well and an out-house.

The school lacked running water and electricity. A wood stove was used to heat the one room school house during the winter months and cold rainy days. One teacher educated the students from grades kindergarten through eighth grade. Some years the teacher taught A board of trustees was established to preside over financial affairs, repairs and to help guide the school into the future. Being a trustee of the school was a paid position just like the teachers did.

An interior pic. This photograph was taken by Jeremy Tuggle on June 19, 2019.

In 1941 the town of Igo received their first electricity, and so did the school house. The decade of the 1950s brought a new feature to the school house, running water. It was utilized by the Platina Union School District until 1960 when the last class was taught by Mrs. Lucy Plumb. In 1970 the building was relocated by truck to Anderson at the Shasta District Fairgrounds.

Original restoration took place by the Shasta Historical Society between the years 1989-1991. Since that time the organization has made many additional restorations to the building so it can be enjoyed by future generations to come and up to code on safety regulations. The Shasta Historical Society keeps the historic Igo Schoolhouse open during the Shasta District Fair, and some times during Anderson Explodes. 

The original stove wood still housed inside the building. This photograph was taken by Jeremy Tuggle on June 19, 2019.

Teachers:

*Note: Teachers prior to 1901 are not well documented.


1901 - A.E. Downing

1904 - Mrs. L. Cunningham

1905 - Mary Stevens

1906 - Mrs. Alex Cox

1907 - Maude M. Sears

1908 - Addie Baker

1909 - Mrs. Mary Kingsbury

1910-1912 - Mrs. Lulu Swanson

1913-1915 - Pauline Rimer

1915-1918 - Mrs. Pearl Miller

1919 - Mrs. Sydnie Jones

1920 - Arleta Hubbard

1921-1944 - Mrs. Sydnie Jones

1944-1958 - Mrs. Amy Jones

1958- 1960 - Mrs. Lucy Plumb



RESOURCES:


The Igo Schoolhouse 1872-1970 printed by Shasta Historical Society

Igo School printed by Shasta Historical Society

Igo School 371.23 available on file at the Shasta Historical Society in Redding.

Igo School Board Minutes Circa 1964/1965

Don't Close Books Yet On Igo School by Mark DeSio -Record Searchlight newspaper of Redding, June 14, 1989

The Last Days of the Igo Schoolhouse by Donald J. Bagley

The Igo Schoolhouse 371.23