Mayook BC One Room School

It’s a random backroad find, unexpected but hardly unwelcome. It’s a former one room school in Mayook BC (a bit south of Cranbrook) and it’s gorgeous. The building came here from somewhere else in the late 1910s although the exact original location make no mention. “…Mayook School was moved from a CPR site near Wardner to Mayook (ed: some 15-16 clicks distance) by local farmers.” From a plaque on the building.

This can only mean the the building already existed elsewhere and given its form perhaps as a school out that way?

Enrolment, as would be expected given the rural location, wasn’t much. About fourteen kids attended at the peak and this dropped to about half that about the time it closed in the early 1950s. Grades one through eight were taught and they also had a kindergarten.

In those years nineteen teachers founded employment here. That’s a high turn over, it was the nature of the business and not unique to Mayook. Other one room schools all over BC and the west had similar problems. What’s not to like about poor pay, long hours and soul crushing loneliness? Teachers usually roomed at a nearby ranch or farm.

Since closing it has functioned as a community hall and as you can see the building is well kept up. The plaque mentions use for church services, weddings, family reunions, ball tournaments, concerts, Christmas parties and even yoga classes. That’s great and isn’t it pretty as a postcard too?

It’s said the school bell came off a locomotive and we’d sure love to hear the story of how that came to be.

From the same card dump…Bellevue & The Frank Slide ~55 years apart, Kimberley Nature Park Myrtle Mountain and Coleman Alberta (Sam’s Service Station).

Short Subjects: Reports that are brief in nature. Think silly little snippets, vignettes and things of that sort. You’ll be in and out in no time.

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Date of adventure: September, 2022.
Location: Mayook, BC.

The little one room school in Mayook BC.