Blue Hill Township: ‘Building’ an education
Aug. 15 marked storm’s 90-year anniversary
BY HUNTER L. ANDES
A township many people may consider no-man’s-land was a bustling place 100 years ago.
Today there isn’t much around Blue Hill Township south of Ryder, but a couple notable places remain: one of them is the unique quonset-type schoolhouse. It’s located two miles south of King’s Highway on State Route 28. Off in the distance, looking southeast, is the bluish haze of Blue Hill Butte.
According to the Roseglen Golden Jubilee Book, this current school isn’t the only schoolhouse that stood in this location. Four and a half different buildings stood where the “quonset-school” now stands.
“There was very little schooling in Blue Hill Township until 1907, when the people voted and the district was consolidated,” the book said. “In January 1909, the first school was opened, and in 1916 it was destroyed by fire.”
The book says a brick building was built in 1917, being large enough to accommodate all eight grades and two years of high school, “But tragedy struck on Aug. 15, 1928, when the school was hit by a tornado.”
