The 23rd of a series of caches planned to be hidden at or near the historic rural schoolhouses of Routt County (RCSH - Routt County School Houses). See the first cache of this series (GC6QQ71) for a complete and updated list of the ones currently available - but this list will continue to grow as there were 96 schools which served Routt County neighborhoods from 1883 until 1960 when the rural districts consolidated.
The land between the Yampa River, Wolf Mountain (on the east) and Morgan Creek (on the north & west) is known as Morgan Bottom - named after the Morgan brothers who came to the Yampa Valley in 1873 - the year before James Crawford came to what is now Steamboat Springs. The brothers originally came into the valley when they received a government freighting contract to haul goods from Rawlins, WY to the White River Indian Agency (near Meeker) – six years before the “Meeker Massacre ''. They loved the area and eventually started homesteading and buying land. The brothers were friendly with the Utes, racing horses with them, trading wares and living peacefully. Joe Morgan owned a trading post near where Elkhead Creek enters the Yampa River - near the Routt/Moffat county line - that the Utes frequented. The Utes even warned the Morgans of upcoming trouble in the fall of 1879.
The 6 Morgan Brothers (there were 7, plus 3 sisters) who made a name for themselves around the Yampa Valley (Joe was the first sheriff of Routt County, while his brother Tom served as sheriff later, Dave, the geologist, had several mining claims, Bill, Ben & Charlie were all ranchers) eventually moved on into Moffat County and eastern Utah. Their descendents are still prominent citizens in NW Colorado generations later.
Morgan Bottom School was originally part of the Morgan Bottom District 24 which was established in1892. Near this location, in 1894, the log school, with a frame storm entrance, was built. Before District 24 dissolved in 1919, the district included the land North of the Yampa River, from the Bear River community (east of Mount Harris) to E.D. Smith’s sawmill on Pilot Knob, to the McKinley Ranch on Elkhead Creek. By 1913, there was a need for additional schools in the outer areas of District 24 and other communities were forming their own districts. Finally in 1919, District 24 dissolved and Morgan Bottom school became part of the Hayden District #2 (established in 1882.). The last reference to a school here is in 1923. There is no record of what happened to the building.
As a footnote to this school listing, the county road you are driving on (CR 70) to reach this cache was the actual road from Steamboat to Hayden until the “Victory Highway” (aka US Hwy 40) was built in the late 1920s and early 1930s which added more bridges crossing the Yampa River. Until this road was finished, the main route from Steamboat to Hayden did not cross the Yampa Riiver until it reached the bottom of “Cog” and you could cross into Hayden or continue on to go over the “hill” to come out near the State Park west of Hayden. The “Hayden Bridge” was the second “public” bridge over the Yampa River and was built in 1883. The “West Hayden Bridge” aka: the Peck Ford Bridge (near the State Park) was built in 1908 and removed the need to make the “difficult pull” over the hill to the Cary Ranch (near the State Park).