Along a quiet country road, just off I-90’s Exit 18, stands the De Borgia Schoolhouse. At first glance, it is an unassuming wood frame building with white paint coating its clapboard siding. But for the generations brought up in the “west end” of Mineral County, it is as much the heart of the community as it was a school.

In 1910, De Borgia’s schoolhouse was new—a centerpiece of a growing young town. Nearby stood a couple of saloons and a hotel. But when an August windstorm sent flames whipping down the forested mountainsides, the town nearly met the same fate as neighboring communities Taft and Saltese that were almost completely burned. By the time the smoke had cleared, most everything in De Borgia was ash. But the schoolhouse stood tall.

De Borgia rebuilt around its school and, for the next century, the schoolhouse not only provided a tangible connection to the town’s past, but helped shape its future. After the “Big Burn,” the town’s population was small—so small, in fact, that one student, Neil Stoughton, had the unique experience of progressing from the first through eighth grades without having a single classmate—a distinction that earned him a place in “Ripley’s Believe it or Not.” Stoughton, who went on to a career in aeronautics that included work on NASA’s Apollo and space shuttle programs, recalled many year later, “I’m convinced I got a better education than anyone could get today because of the fact that I was listening to the older kids [lessons] way ahead of my time.”

The De Borgia Schoolhouse served as a school until 1958, when low enrollment forced its closure. It fell into disrepair until 1969, when a group of concerned citizens known as the Happy Homemakers took it upon themselves to raise funds—through such things as bake sales and specials events—to restore the building for the community. Meetings, elections, and performances have all taken place there. As the schoolhouse’s National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form proclaims: “The schoolhouse is a remnant of a past era when rural community life focused on such buildings as gathering and meeting places for a wide-spread population.”

Credits and Sources:

Cramer, John. “Path to Preservation – Happy Homemakers Club works to maintain 100-year-old Schoolhouse.” Missoulian, August 25, 2008.

Hayt, Jonathon M., and Jack Wright. “De Borgia Schoolhouse.” United States Department of the Interior, Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form, September 17, 1979.

Holien, Mick. “Former Students Recall Old Days.” Missoulian, October 20, 1997.

------. “New Chapter for an Old School.” Missoulian, October 20, 1997.

Mineral County Historical Society. Pictorial History of Mineral County. Missoula, MT: Missoulian, 1959.

Montana Historical Society of Mineral County, 118 Years of History. Helena: Montana Historical Society, 1976.

Historic photographs of “De Borgia Class of 1928,” “De Borgia Class of 1929,” and “De Borgia Schoolhouse” courtesy of Mineral County Historical Museum, Superior, MT.

Contemporary photographs of De Borgia Schoolhouse courtesy of Historical Research Associates, Inc.