One-room schools were always situated in remote locations like this Quinlan School in Powell County. Children were not expected to have to ride their horses more than five miles to get to and from school.
Jim Dodge and Tom Zook told their stories of going to the Leonard Section School, Custer County, which had been an abandoned homestead.
There was ubiquitous pride in their voices as they spoke of their schools' important role within the community fabric, and there was an echoing lament about the reper- cussions of school closings with the accompanying slow demise of community cohesion and spirit. The preservation of one-room schoolhouses is important, as they are among Montana's first frontier structures. Whispering from within these schoolhouse walls are stories about parents or grandparents immigrating, homesteading, and persisting with tenacity to make a life, build a school, raise their children and crops, and create a community. Visions and Voices is printed, edited, designed, formatted, and distributed by Montana com- panies. With pleasure, I will donate the profits from my book to the Preserve Montana Fund, a campaign of collaboration between the Mon- tana Preservation Alliance, the Montana History Foundation, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This donation will serve to cre- ate a challenge grant, earmarked for Montana's endangered one-room schoolhouses.
The Hill School in Liberty County was one of the first historic school house recipients of a grant from the Preserve Montana Fund.
Books will be available anywhere, but in order for 100% of the profit to go directly to a nonprofit for the benefit of historic one-room schools, purchase directly from MONTANA HISTORY FOUNDATION CONTACT GENA ASHMORE GENA@MTHISTORY.ORG (406) 449-3770 MONTANA HISTORY FOUNDATION 1750 NORTH WASHINGTON STREET HELENA, MT 59601
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