A HISTO Y OF EDUCATION IN THE VIRGIN VALLEY TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Page 1 Chapter First schools to 1890 Page 3 Chapter 2 1890 to 1905 Page 8 Chapter 3 1905 to 1920 Page 12 Chapter 4 1920 to 1930 Page 17 Chapter 5 1930 to 1940 Page 21 Chapter 6 1940 to 1950 Page 28 Chapter 7 1950 to 1970 Page 40 Chapter 8 1970 to Present Page 46 Credits Page 57 Introduction This book was undertaken as a English IV Distinguished Scholar research project. It endeavors to cover the history of education from the first settlement in 1877 in Bunkerv ll 1 e to the present day. Th 1 s year was chosen for the project to mark the last year the students of the Virgin Valley High School would spend on the present campus and to commemorate the move to the new facility. Many people in the Virgin Valley have contributed information and spent hours helping the seniors research this book. Throughout the text, the memor l es and research of Vinnie Leavitt and DeMar Hughes are used as the basis for the history. Others who have contributed are E. Wesley Hughes, Marion ~Tex~ Hughes, Gertha Norvell, Myrtle Reber, Rene Adams, Emmett Barnum, Don Lee, Jack and Vi.late Hardy, Larry and Colleen Reber, Mike Waite, Evan Wilson, Kirk Brotherson, Joe Bowler, Kent Anderson and Harold Wittwer. For their help and encouragement, we are extremely grateful. A bibliography of the articles and histories which were used in each chapter are listed at the end. As the research was gathered, there were discrepencies 1 n some of the art i c I es. Many of these were c I eared up by personal interviews. However, there may st 1 l .l be some 2 incorrect facts of which the reader may be aware. If this is the case. the authors would appreciate the information so the book may be corrected. Also, more information which is not contained in the book will be accepted and added. The purposes of the book were to give the col lege-bound students a research experience through investigation of written and oral histories, to record educational history to this date in the Virgin Valley, and to bring enjoyment to those who Jived it by having the experience of living it again through the written word. To the pioneers who had the dream to settle this land, and in whom there was a 1ove and need for education, this book is dedicated. Susan Bennett English IV Teacher Chapter One Settlement and First Schools In order to understand the history of education in the Virgin Val ley, the history of the Val ley must also be told. The first known white people to come to Virgin Valley followed the old Spanish trail. Some of those who traveled along this trail were trappers, Indian slave traders, missionaries and those heading west for California. About 1826, Jedldiah Smith, a famous frontier explorer, came looking for new trapping grounds. He and his party, which inc I uded a man named Thomas V1 rg 1 n, camped about 30 miles up the river from Mesquite. While there, some Indians attacked. One rumor says that Thomas Virgin was ki lied in the battle and burled on the side of the hi I 1 overlooking the river. Jedidlah Smith then named it the Virgin River in his honor. Another rumor says that Thomas Virgin was only wounded in battle and later kll led by a bear. Whichever the case may be, the River was stilI named after Thomas Virgin. A few years I ater, John C. Fremont, another famous explorer, camped in a wash near Virgin Valley while waltlng for a flood to go by. The Mormon Battalion passed through Virgin Val ley ln 1847. Edward Bunker, Sr. was in the Battalion. 4 A Captain May came through the area looking for a roadway on the Utah-California border which at that time was near Jean, Nevada. A few years 1ater, Edward Bunker was 1 i v 1 ng in the small town of Santa Clara. In Santa Clara they tried to live the United Order, but after a year the system failed. Edward Bunker wanted to continue living the principles of the United Order. He succeeded over the next two years 1n conv l nc i ng a few c 1ose friends and famll y members to he 1p him organize a new community fully committed to living the United Order. Consulting with Brigham Young, the President of the LDS church, he was advised that he could "go any place south, but not north." In January 1877, eight families, guided by Edward Bunker. met and organized themselves into a company for carrying out the United Order elsewhere. Edward Bunker remembered the Virgin River Valley. On January 5, 1877, the party arrived on the Mesquite flat wlth six wagons, 70 horses and 23 people. On the Mesquite side of the river the land wasn;t very good. The Bunker party soon found out that there were reasons why others had not settled there. An overgrowth of Mesquite bushes had to be grubbed out, yard by yard, before crops could be planted" It was necessary to level the rolling landscape before successful irrigation could be undertaken. It was obv 1ous that the Virgin R l ver had been 5 cruelly misnamed. It was fu 1 1 of mud and sticks--a I most impossible to use as a source of drinking water. On the other side of the River, the ground was flat and the soil was rich. Rather then deal with the almost impossible landscape, the party moved across the rlver to what would become Bunkervll le. Settlement commenced with an impressive ceremonial blessing of the land. Standing in the center of a circle surrounded by seven teen men, Edward Bunker dedicated the 1and known as Bunkerv i I 1e to the Lord. Our i ng the prayer, he let wheat fall through the fingers of one hand and soil from the land through the other. Bunkerville was a product of one man~s desire to find a place where he and a few like-minded saints could practice the United Order. The Bunker party found a p 1ace that perml t ted them the so 1 i tude to shape the 1r own society as they w l shed. The set t 1ers, as 1 t turned out, were not pioneers leading the way for others--they sought to build a secluded oasis. The community was soon organized into practicing the United Order. The group prepared meals in a common kitchen and ate in one large dining room. The women shared cooking, laundry and dairy tasks. rotating the duties on a weekly basis. The men were organized into crews for clearing and leveling the land, building ditches and dams, planting, tending and harvesting crops. 6 A couple of days after the party arrived ln Bunkerville, the very first building was built. It was a lumber shack made out of a wagon. They built it on the hi! 1 where Jack and Kathy Faught live now. This lumber shack was not only the very first building built in the valley, but also the first schoolhouse and church. There were no chi 1 dren in the first company; but by fall, several families had come. The school was started. A man named Char 1 i e Heath was the first teacher in Virgin Valley. The students sat on split cottonwood logs. The school had one arithmetic, one spelling and three reading books. By September or October, Myron Abbott estab I i shed a night school, which was really the first high school. Between 1877 and 1880, the settlement began to move southwest close to the area where Vey Mickelson;s house is today . A grist mi 11 was put in and run by water power. Some people settled there, and some went down by where Bunkerville ls now. The second school built in Bunkerville was called the "W i 1 J ow Schoo 1 . " It was bu i 1 t in the community square where the Bunkerville Park is now. The school was built out ot cottonwood logs. When it got cooler, they covered the 1ogs with w i 1 1ow or canvas. Schoo I was not he l ct on work days. Children did not go to school everyday, just whenever they could. 7 The first house built in Bunkerville ~.,as built in November of 1879. It is now Loye Houston's house. By December 1879, the setllers had a bowery with canvas wal Is and a spll t log floor. There was no roof. This bowery was used for dancing and community get-togethers. In 1880 the bowery was enclosed with canvas, sticks and adobe. It was big enough for five quadrilles to dance in. It had two windows and a door and was also used as a church. This building was known as the "Flag School." Mrs. Cox and Luc1us Peck were teachers in the 1880/s. Mesquite, Logandale, Overton and Bunkerville al 1 went to school in Bunkerville. Often students would Just 1 ive with other families 1n town, because it was too far away to travel back and forth. The area was still part of the Utah territory. Bunkerville is the oldest permanent established town in Southern Nevada. So those were the early days of Virign Valley schools. That is where it all began. Shaulee Perkins Doug Navarro Chapter Two 1890-1905 The movement for a larger rock building originated with a group of young men who had been denied the use of the old "Flag School 11 for a dance before they left on a freighting trip.