Rural country schools were very popular in the homestead era. My home county maxed out at 82 in its heyday. Some were established as early as 1908, but most sprang up in 1913 – that being the first year of our Golden Valley County’s legal existence, dividing off from Billings County. But the depression of the “Dirty 30s” forced the closing of many as families left, hopefully for a better life elsewhere.
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