My mother lives in a nursing home. She loves to go for drives in
the country, and reminisce about the "good old days", and really
that's about all she can remember these days, so it's good to get
her capture on history of the community. One of those drives took
us down this dusty gravel road to this old school, and she was
thrilled to see it still there, because she said she used to play
baseball against this school; so I decided to plant a cache there.
This is an ammo box, filled with the usual as well as a FTF
prize.
You may smile when you see why I ticked off the public washroom
as a facility nearby.
For interest, I have included a bit of history: The district was
also known as Progressive School District #561. The schoolhouse was
located at the S.E. 5-42-27-W4. The district was formed around the
year 1900. Iowalta was so named by the King's and Zielie's. This
occurred when the young men decided to form a ball team and were in
need of a name. Since there were a lot of people living here who
came from the state of Iowa, Iowa and Alta were put together to
make "IOWALTA".
The school was built in the summer of 1901. The logs were hewed,
stripped and filled with saw dust. It was shingled in the year of
1907. Many children from outside the district came to Progressive
School. Some came by foot or on horseback from homes 5 or 6 miles
away. The school had fifteen or sixteen double seats, a wood
heater, a small five-octave "Davis" organ - later a Dominion
six-octave. There was a little corner cupboard to hold library
books. There were curtains, a few pretty pictures, and on the
platform was the teacher's table with a drawer to hold the register
and strap. On the table was the handbell used to summon students.
Slates were used and a bottle of water and two rags, to wash and
dry the slate. Church and Sunday School were also held at the
schoolhouse.
In 1929 the district built a new schoolhouse and with the coming
of the larger school units, in 1956 the community bought the school
to be used as a centre.
AS IT STANDS TODAY