(Read through this information, and then check out the thumbnails of photos below!)

In mid-February of 2002, NVMS sixth graders from Mr. Bones' and Mrs. Kirkpatrick's classes went on a bus tour of old school sites in South Tillamook County. First, we left the site of the old Beaver School, and we traveled up Blaine Road and Upper Nestucca River Road to approximately milepost 13 to the site of Silver Falls School. Nothing is left of the school now but a beautiful view of the surrounding land.

Next we traveled downriver to Blaine to see the site of the second Blaine School. The first one was up on a hill northwest of the second site. We then rode a short distance up Moon Creek Road. We turned around at East Creek Rd. which led another 6 miles or so to the old site of the East Creek School.

Traveling further downriver, we traveled by Boulder Creek Road, a road that used to have Boulder Creek School on it, and turned onto Borba Road. We traveled to the end of the pavement where we all got off the bus to walk to near the site of the second Brown School. We got to see the two huge old tulip trees that are still there, and we got to see the spring where students would go to get water for the school.

Next we traveled down Blaine Road to Wolf Creek Road. Just off of Barcroft Road was the site of Wolf Creek School. Nothing of the school remains, but as the site of the school is in what is now the Measor Farm, Christy Measor had marked off the site of the old school for us with four corner posts.

We then traveled back to Beaver and headed north on Highway 101 to East Beaver Creek Road. The East Beaver Creek School was on the right side of the road about 1/4 mile before the Phelps' farm. Half of the sixth graders had been past the site of the school earlier when they traveled up East Beaver Creek Road to put fish carcasses in the creek to put nutrients in the creek area for the benefit of fish and animals.

Our next school site to visit was Hemlock School. There we got out of the bus and had our pictures taken on the steps of the school.

After that we traveled west on Sandlake Road past the sites of Sunny Dell School, Chamberlain School, and Sandlake School. We traveled into Pacific City and got off of the bus near the Tidewater Restaurant to walk to the site and building that was formerly Pacific City School.

We then drove through Woods to view the site of the old Woods School and onto Old Woods Road past the site of the Gist Cemetery that some of the NVMS students are working to restore. We continued on past the site of the first South County school, Nestucca Valley, also called Ole' Red, and before that it was called Butts Landing School.

We continued through Cloverdale past the sites of the Cloverdale School, Cloverdale High School, on past Cloverdale Elementary that is now Nestucca Valley Elementary School. We saw the site of Union School where the current Nestucca Seventh Day Adventist Church stands. We drove through Oretown, the site of three Oretown Schools, past Neskowin's two sites of former schools, and on to Slab Creek Road to drive past Neskowin Valley School and the former site of Slab Creek School.

Whew! From there we drove back to Oretown, turned onto Redberg Road to Meda Loop. We drove past the site of Meda School on to Little Nestucca River Road. From there we traveled to Dolph to learn approximately where the first Dolph School was. The second Dolph School was a few miles north on Highway 22.

We continued on past the site of Castle Rock School and Hebo School. Since we still had about an hour, we drove back to Gist Cemetery on Old Woods Road to show all of the sixth graders the restoration work that a number of students at NVMS have been doing at the cemetery.

It was a very long day on the bus, but it was a benefit for the students to get an idea of where the schools they were researching were and how big of an area the current school district currently is.