Tehachapi News
One-room schoolhouse dedication brings local history alive
One-room schoolhouse dedication brings local history alive
By: by Nick Smirnoff, Contributing Writer
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Posted by editor Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:10:40 PDT
Viewed 1195 times
0 responses 0 comments An appreciative crowd of Bear Valley Springs residents were among nearly 120 guests who celebrated the re-opening of the historical Bear Valley School house.
The one-room school was built in Bear Valley in 1872 by local ranching families so their children would not have to travel outside the valley to obtain an education. The school was used by the Fickert children, as well as children from neighboring ranches and farms within the valley.
Over the years, as neighboring ranches were bought up and the valley population shifted, the old school house fell into disrepair. It was eventually moved closer to the Fickert Ranch Headquarters and for years served as a bunkhouse for ranch hands and cowboys.
Dart Industries developed the gated community of Bear Valley Springs in the early 1970s and the school house was once again moved, this time to its present location near the Whiting Center.
It has been open over the years for viewing, but was allowed to deteriorate before the Bear Valley Cultural Arts Association and local volunteers restored the aging building into a museum, highlighting local school life in the late 1800s.
The school building will be opened on a limited basis by local docents. Additional history on the school house and other local history of the area can be obtained from the Tehachapi Heritage league, which maintains a museum on Green Street in Tehachapi where it sells books, many by local authors, concerning the Tehachapi area's rich, colorful history. The Museum can be reached at 822-8152.
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