July 25, 2012: The cornerstone of the Boxholm school. I have no idea if it was preserved.
Boxholm’s school, which closed in 2014, was torn down earlier this year.
In March, the Fort Dodge Messenger ran a retrospective — or, perhaps, obituary — of the school with interviews of former students. The pictures from inside show stuff simply abandoned. In April, KCCI ran a pair of stories about preservation of the “new” gym, which is half a century old but like so many school sites was built in the 1950s/60s to replace a small-to-microscopic one in the 1910s/20s building.
Outlines of Southeast Valley school board agendas in May refer to demolition and sale of the Boxholm site, and a contract was put out for bid although this link does not have the amount. (At the time of this writing, minutes for the board meetings were unavailable, and a website redesign may be to blame. Technically, these are joint meetings of two district school boards until consolidation becomes official next summer. See more about Southeast Valley’s history here.)
Finally, a July 16 Facebook post from the Gowrie News said, “Boxholm School is no longer, all that remains is a pile of rubble. 😥”
Boxholm is the second school from 1916 demolished in 2022 after a period of abandonment. Eldora is the other.