Butte Falls bulletin., January 01, 2007, Page 2, Image 2

D ID
YOU
K N O W ? CBA
Historical notes from Big Butte Historical Society
Compiled by Charleen Brown
A TOWN BEGINS...
In the fall of 1905, Mr. Harris platted a street grid for a
town on the bluff west of the sawmill at the falls. The town
covered fifty-five acres, and was laid out with a 300 foot plaza
in the center. He patterned the town after Harvard, Illinois
which was said to have been his hometown and also that of early
resident, Lola Edmondson, the wife of "Gus" A.E. Edmondson. "Gus"
later served as Mayor in 1939. The new town was named Butte Falls
for the natural feature on Big Butte Creek. Starting as a tent
city, Butte Falls soon became a thriving community, B y 1 9 0 6 , t h e QPONMLKJIHG
population had increased to 350 people.
On January 22, 1906 a dedication ceremony was held and papers
were entered into Jackson County records. The first grocery store
was built by George Richards on the north side of the town square.
With lumber hauled from the Olsen mill, the Pine Belt Bank was
built and chartered in 1907. In the book, Land In Common, Terrie
Claflin writes as follows; Butte Falls may have started as a tent
city but it soon boasted of everything from hardware and barber
shops to Bull Pine's Mexican restaurant, Doubleday's Dew Drop Inn
for drinking and gambling, the somewhat posh U.S. Hotel, a target
shooting gallery, two billiard halls, the Athletic Club for
sporting events, dinners and dances, an official city ball team,
and even a telephone down at Claspill's grocery store."
Butte Falls School District #91 was established in 1906 and
Ernest W. Smith described the early school in his history of Butte
Falls as follows; "School was held in a one room building about
where the new telephone building was being built, The first
teacher was Miss Nancy Cadell. She was paid $50.00 per month.
The janitor got $2.50 per month. The new schoolhouse was built in
1908." Mr. Harris was also instrumental in getting the new
schoolhouse built, The two-story structure housed the e l e m e n t a r y
grades on the lower
level and the high
■7
*
school on the top
floor. The high
H-*.
a .-, A/ ' ■
'A'; KJIHGFEDCBA
school operated as
a three year school w ’
until a fourth year
*
was added in 1917.
•
' --
lr ’W a
It remained upstairs ■' 1. S
until 1926 when the A
new high school was 5
built at its present |
day location.
Xi
rs .
•'
'i
I ii
W-
A
4
PAGE 2