Explore the valley’s schoolhouses, class photographs, and memories of growing up here—from Valley View and Crystal to Highland, Mountain View, Buist, and Pauline.
School life runs through the histories of Arbon, Crystal, Summit, Buist, and Pauline. These accounts remember buildings shared with churches and community gatherings, journeys on horseback, winter roads, and classrooms filled with neighbors.
The summaries below draw from the preserved area histories. Dates and descriptions follow those accounts; they are historical records rather than current school information.
The Arbon account describes a log building built in 1901–1902 through the shared labor of homesteaders. Valley View School shared the building with church meetings, dances, and other community gatherings.
Read the original area account ↗The Crystal history records a 28-by-48-foot frame schoolhouse in District 14, built for $1,750. It also recalls five other schools across the wider Crystal area.
Read the original area account ↗The Crystal account remembers the Rattlesnake schoolhouse on Mercer Creek as a meeting place for a non-denominational Sunday School in 1911. The account identifies the former schoolhouse as a private home, not a visitor site.
Read the original area account ↗Built in 1914, Mountain View served children in the southern valley until 1935, according to the Buist history.
Read the original area account ↗The Summit account describes two large rooms, a heating stove, and sometimes more than forty children. Children rode horses to school, and winter snow could end the school season. The school also hosted church meetings and social gatherings.
Read the original area account ↗Children first met in the Willie home while a schoolhouse was being built in 1916. The Buist account records its closure in 1931 and the reuse of its lumber after the building was dismantled in 1969.
Read the original area account ↗Follow the Pauline account and its school-bus photograph, then explore class photographs and recollections of Arbon Elementary. The original school page preserves 22 photographs and the identifications supplied by contributors.
Read the original area account ↗
View photograph ↗Pauline school bus
From: Pauline and West Fork ↗
View photograph ↗Arbon school circa 1980
From: School memories ↗
View photograph ↗(submitted by Pam Estep Christensen)
From: School memories ↗
View photograph ↗(submitted by Pam Estep Christensen)
From: School memories ↗Open a photograph to enlarge it and read its caption. Names, credits, and unknown dates remain as recorded.
School, music, family, and farming connect Lynn and JoAnn's story to several generations of Andersens in the valley.
Dan Nuckols remembers school, winter roads, neighbors, and the feeling of coming home to Arbon.
The original Arbon Elementary page and school district records remain in the archive. Staff lists, notices, and contact details reflect their original publication dates.
Help identify a school photograph or add a memory ↗