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Bird Creek School

Bird Creek School

City/Town:
Location Class:
Built: 1939 | Abandoned: 1970s
Status: AbandonedPrivate Property
Photojournalist: David LindeJohnny Fletcher
Bird Creek School
Bird Creek School Bell via Osage County Historical Society

THIS BUILDING IS ON PRIVATE PROPERTY WITH CAMERAS! TRESPASSERS WILL BE MET BY OSAGE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE! DO NOT GO TO THIS LOCATION WITHOUT PERMISSION.

Bird Creek is a two-room school built by the WPA, construction started in 1938 and was completed in 1939. It was a small country school for District 17 that got its name from the nearby Bird Creek that runs throughout Osage County. It was significant educationally and socially being as it introduced a modern facility with advanced instructional teachings and by providing job opportunities to some of the impoverished workmen in the area. The Pawhuska Journal-Capital reported that 15 students from Bird Creek School and their teacher Mrs. T. E. Allen and several parents went on a field trip to Independence, Kansas on May 31, 1951.

As many rural areas across the country were experiencing, an announcement was made that 4 rural schools in Osage County would close in the 1952-53 school year, Bird Creek was one of them. Mrs. Allen, the last teacher, was transferred and the students were integrated into Pawhuska School District.  became more of a community building throughout the 1970s. The Bird Creek Home Demonstration Club met there often with reports of them meeting at the old school spanning from 1957-1976. The Daily Oklahoman April 24, 1979 even spoke of an outdoor living camp for students in the district that would be held at the Bird Creek School where students would live off the land and study wildlife, water conservation and pollution.

However, its remote location and economic changes meant that keeping up with the building and having enough groups and people to occupy it would become too much and the school officially closed its doors to activity. It was later nominated to be on the Oklahoma Landmark’s Listings but was passed up.

The current owners acquired it from a trade by giving up dirt for the nearby landfill, and in return, they were given the school which their mother happened to be a former student of. For decades they have fought inaccurate reports of paranormal hauntings that have plagued the school that the community did and still holds near and dear. Vandals breaking into the building have ruined any historical features by spray painting their names all over the chalkboards and breaking out all the windows and doors. The owners who once looked at the building as a great memory of their late mother, now see a dilapidated and ruined building that has brought heaps of stress from trespassers.

THIS BUILDING IS ON PRIVATE PROPERTY WITH CAMERAS! TRESPASSERS WILL BE MET BY OSAGE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE! DO NOT GO TO THIS LOCATION WITHOUT PERMISSION.




Bibliography
“16 Aug 1957, 8 – The Osage Journal and The Osage County News at Newspapers.com.” Newspapers.com, www.newspapers.com/image/596674255/?terms=bird%2Bcreek%2Bschool.
“16 Sep 1976, 3 – Pawhuska Journal-Capital at Newspapers.com.” Newspapers.com, www.newspapers.com/image/596669709/?terms=bird%2Bcreek%2Bschool.
“24 Apr 1979, 81 – The Daily Oklahoman at Newspapers.com.” Newspapers.com, www.newspapers.com/image/455364987/?terms=bird%2Bcreek%2Bschool.
“31 May 1961, 2 – Pawhuska Journal-Capital at Newspapers.com.” Newspapers.com, www.newspapers.com/image/603881311/?terms=bird%2Bcreek%2Bschool.
“9 Jul 1957, 3 – Pawhuska Journal-Capital at Newspapers.com.” Newspapers.com, www.newspapers.com/image/597650880/?terms=bird%2Bcreek%2Bschool.
“Home.” The History Exchange, thehistoryexchange.com/index.php/wpa-research/bird-creek-school-pawhuska-vic/.
Bird Creek School
Emily Cowan

Emily is a two-time published author of "Abandoned Oklahoma: Vanishing History of the Sooner State" and "Abandoned Topeka: Psychiatric Capital of the World". With over two hundred published articles on our websites. Exploring since 2018 every aspect of this has become a passion for her. From educating, fighting to preserve, writing, and learning about history there is nothing she would rather do.

If you wish to support our current and future work, please consider making a donation or purchasing one of our many books. Any and all donations are appreciated.

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Emily Cowan

Emily is a two-time published author of "Abandoned Oklahoma: Vanishing History of the Sooner State" and "Abandoned Topeka: Psychiatric Capital of the World". With over two hundred published articles on our websites. Exploring since 2018 every aspect of this has become a passion for her. From educating, fighting to preserve, writing, and learning about history there is nothing she would rather do.

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