Katie Kirk shared this great old photo taken at Culp Creek School. On the back is written “Betty Earnshaw, Reta, Rita, Charles, ?, and Mr Roth”. Reta was Katie’s mom and Rita her mom’s twin ( Shields) She guesses the date at 1935 to 1938.
Katie Kirk shared this great old photo taken at Culp Creek School. On the back is written “Betty Earnshaw, Reta, Rita, Charles, ?, and Mr Roth”. Reta was Katie’s mom and Rita her mom’s twin ( Shields) She guesses the date at 1935 to 1938.
Lee Marvin showed up at Culp Creek School one day in 1972 to visit with the kids and play a game of ball. Lee was in town filming Emperor of the North with Ernest Borgnine. The story goes that one of the students was afraid that he would be in trouble for staying late after school, so Mr. Marvin walked him home and told the surprised mother that he was the reason her son was not home on time.
In the early days of Dorena some of the women in town organized the Happy Circle Sewing Club. The club met twice a month to sew, mend and quilt. It gave the members a chance to get out of the house and visit and have fun. The grocery store building in town became vacant so the club members put on plays to raise the funds to buy the building. The Happy Circle ladies rented out their building to the Grange for 50 cents a month. The community often held dances there, too. Almost everyone in town came to kick up their heels and as one attendee stated “the rafters jumped!”
In the same spirit the Row River Sunshine Club has been meeting in the valley for over 50 years. They craft, bake, help residents in distress and generally keep the sense of community alive on the river.
They can be reached at PO Box 124, Dorena, OR 97434.
The vast archives of the Dorena Historical Society (okay, a cardboard box in my closet) contain many old Row River Valley School pictures.
Here are some rough and tumble Culp Creek School kids. Looks like the 1940s based on the cool baggy blue jeans on the girls. Culp Creek School survives today as Childs Way Academy.
The kiddies of Wildwood School were an impish group. The story goes that the teacher here wore a clock around his neck to tell him when class was over. The older kids convinced a little girl to sit on his lap and sneakily turn the minute hand ahead so that they could get out of school sooner. Unfortunately she turned the hand the wrong way and they had to suffer through extra class time.
An old and wrinkled copy of a photo of the Disston School Student Body around 1914. This was the furthest school up the valley. The gym survives as an outbuilding on private property.
Photos and the history of the Dorena School will be on another post.
There was also a school at Star.
There was a Doolittle School for a time up on Rat Creek.