They were located in Mink Creek, Franklin, Whitney, Preston, Weston and Clifton. Over thirty years passed before a centrally located elementary school was built.Īt one time, the small county of Franklin had six high schools. The building has since been torn down and the children went to Weston and Clifton, presumably for five years until another elementary school could be built. These grassy areas were used for baseball, softball, and various other games in warm weather and for fox and geese in the winter months. A curved driveway, providing entrance and exit for school busses not only added to the overall appearance, but was also a safety feature.įill dirt was hauled in and a lovely, green lawn covered all the area that once was covered with shale. Both ditches were rip-rapped and pleasant, rounding curves were placed appropriately along the length of each to enhance their attractiveness. A wide sidewalk with two graceful curves went from the front turnstile gate to the front steps of the schoolhouse. The final outcome was a one-hundred percent improvement from the old building. Early in the 1940s the school board conceived the sensible idea of landscaping the area immediately surrounding the building. Also on two sides of the school’s front yard ran irrigation ditches, which were usually full during part of every school year, both spring and fall. As this was also considered part of the play area, many a young student went running to the teacher with skinned knees or elbows. The shale kept the weeds down and made a rough, but level surface. The front and side yards of the school grounds were covered with shale. 1876 Oneida County Map from Maps of Early Idaho, R. Minor boundary changes have occurred since then. Franklin County was created in 1913 and separated from Oneida County. Its initial size was 32,708 mi2 making it the third largest of the 17 counties created by the first legislature of Idaho Territory in 1863 and early 1864. Thus, anyone wanting to establish a school district had to travel to Malad to apply for legal status.Įarly in its lengthy history, Oneida County had the distinction of being Idaho’s largest county by both area and population. The county seat was moved to Malad City in 1866 because of its population growth and location on the freight road and stagecoach line between Corinne, Utah, and the mines in Butte, Montana. Its first county seat was in Soda Springs in present-day Caribou County. It was named for Oneida Lake, New York, the area from which most of the early settlers had emigrated. It comprised what would later become seventeen different counties. Oneida County was organized on January 22, 1864. The survey showed that Franklin was in Idaho, in Oneida County. A survey of Idaho’s southern border in 1872 revealed that the 1870 Census had erroneously assigned five Idaho settlements in the Cache Valley to Cache County, Utah. There was some confusion about whether Franklin was in Utah or Idaho. It lasted until they built the rock meetinghouse (about 1889).” It was big enough to take care of the needs of the people at that time they were very happy with it when it was finished. It was built just about where the church now stands. These were cut and hauled to the saw mill for cutting to desired sizes. They found a good place in the canyon to get logs. So they decided to get together and go to the canyon for logs to build something that could be used for both church and school. They didn’t have any other place but homes which were too small, or dugouts, or one room log houses. Larsen remembers the building of the log school: “The only place the pioneers had to meet in for public gatherings was in homes or in the cottonwood grove where they celebrated. In the early days the church house also served as the school house. Mink Creek schools – old in front and new in back. A shorter road through Riverdale to Preston was later developed. The Mink Creek area used to be accessible only on a long route by way of Franklin, Worm Creek, and Station Creek.
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