Abandoned Houses And Schools
Abandoned places have a certain mystery about them. Why were they abandoned? What’s the history of this place? When it is an abandoned house or school it makes an even stronger connection with us as a home and school are something we can all relate to.
During our trip on the northern Great Plains we saw a number of abandoned houses. It’s a lasting legacy of the population shift from rural to urban environments. As a result of declining populations small towns wither and schools fall victim to the same factors. It’s sad to see.
The photos are below but they are only a few of the abandoned houses and schools that we saw. Some I’ve skipped because they weren’t interesting and/or didn’t really have a lot of “character”. I’ve previously mentioned that there was a lot of haze due to distant forest fires. As a result, the photos for a few of the places we saw were not really all that good.
The Photos
I had planned to shoot this old school but didn’t know there was a truck near it. From the grainy Google street view shot I wasn’t even sure the school would be worth shooting. Luckily, I ended up with a “twofer“, an “old school” Dodge truck in front of an actual old school. Hence the name, Old School Times Two. Hard to beat that especially since I didn’t have high expectations for this site. The faded lettering on the truck door appears to be “J Roberts General Hauling & Coal”
The old swing set and slide in the grassy field gives a real sense of loneliness and abandonment. You can’t help but wonder, where did all the children go?
Everyone we met on our travels was friendly and helpful. Everyone that is until the lady we encountered at this site. Because it was marked Private Property, we did not trespass and just shot from the road which is perfectly legal. Suddenly, a lady comes up the road and slams on the brakes. She then exclaimed that we were trespassing (we weren’t) and we couldn’t take photos of the school. This seemed strange as one newspaper article described this as the “most-photographed schoolhouse in the entire state, appearing in many different pieces of artwork, book covers and other places” quoting the County Preservation Commission Historic Preservation Officer. I tried to explain that we can shoot from the road but she was having none of it. With that she sped off. Personally, I find it rather sad that someone would choose to go through life permanently angry.
We stumbled across this log cabin. It really makes you think about what life of the plains was like way back when. The winters are pretty tough and even with two fireplaces it had to be a long, cold winter.
We discovered this building driving the back roads. It left us a bit puzzled as to what it was. As we stood by the fence discussing possibilities a rancher came by and stopped. He simply wanted to make sure we were okay. It was a neighborly gesture to check on our welfare given that it was mid-afternoon, the temperature was in the high 90’s, we were on road that doesn’t get a lot of traffic and we were in the middle of nowhere.
After we thanked him and assured him we were okay we asked him about the building. He indicated that this was one of a number of identical schools built in the area in the 1920’s. This particular one was called “The American School“. Interestingly, his great-grandfather attended school here. His family has been there for a long time. Long enough that the road we were on was named after them. What a refreshing and enjoyable interaction, especially in contrast to the lady we encountered at Burnham School.
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What are some of your memorable interactions with people when out taking photos? Please leave a comment in the comment box below.
