April 17, 2016: “Tuesday last the contract was let for the new school house in Beaver. D.C. Ferrell of Omaha got the contract for $40,740.00, M.J. Madison got the contract for plumbing for $700.” — Grand Junction Globe, February 26, 1920
The Beaver school is a bit like Brigadoon: You can only see it at certain times. When the trees are in leaf, it’s hard to see the abandoned building on 2nd Street.
A history of the Beaver school district was presented at the school’s last assembly. That history, compiled by Archie Sparks of the Boone County Historical Society, and printed in the January 9, 1969, Globe-Free Press, is where the following information comes from.
The Beaver school building opened in fall 1921. The last high school class was in 1946, and the last eighth-grade class was in 1962. Beaver was attached to the Ogden school district in 1966, as one of the mandatory assignments at the K-12 deadline.
“The Ogden Schools used the Beaver brick building for fifth and sixth grade classes until December 19, 1968, when these classes were transferred to the old junior high school building at Ogden, and the new high school building at Ogden was occupied.”
The Beaver school was a school for 47½ years. It’s been not-a-school for 55.