Spring Creek School
Borger, Hutchinson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established in 1900, a year before Hutchinson County was formally organized, the Spring Creek School is an early and significant part of the county's educational heritage. In that year, W. B. Haile and other area ranchers collected funds to buy materials to build the first schoolhouse. Located on the Harvey Ranch near Spring Creek, the schoolhouse served 13 students, taught by Mrs. L. S. Ford that first, 60-day school year. In 1901, the Hutchinson County commissioners court divided the county into four school districts, Spring Creek being named district #4. At that time, schools were under the supervision of a superintendent of county education, who by 1903 was W. B. Haile. When the area's population shifted, the first schoolhouse was moved to Haile Ranch and later to the Terry Ranch before becoming too small for the number of students enrolled. It was replaced sometime before 1930; this second building burned in 1932 but was rebuilt. The next building, a red brick structure, was completed in 1938 and offered the students and teachers six classrooms, a gymnasium-auditorium and a library. In 1949, the White Deer Creek School District consolidated with Spring Creek. At the turn of the 21st century, the Spring Creek School retained its status as an independent school district, serving this rural part of Hutchinson County. Administrators have directed strong educational and extra-curricular programs throughout the school's history. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Established in 1900—a year before Hutchinson County was even formally organized—Spring Creek School began when rancher W.B. Haile and his neighbors pooled money to build a one-room schoolhouse on the Harvey Ranch. Thirteen children studied through a sixty-day first term, and as ranching families shifted across the range the little building was moved from ranch to ranch before better structures replaced it. Rebuilt after an early fire and expanded with a brick building in 1938, the district endured into the 21st century as an independent rural school.
Why it matters
Spring Creek shows how ranching families themselves financed and sustained education on the open range, planting schools ahead of formal county government in the American West.
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Related people
- · W. B. Haile
Themes & tags
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