Square Butte School

The Square Butte School in Montana was opened for classes in 1918 and served the community until 1967.  A previously built school (similar to the one shown in these photos) had been completed in the summer of 1917 but only two months later an arsonist burned it to the ground.

In the spring of 1921, Charles Lindbergh was barnstorming through Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana for flight practice and to make a dollar.  He charged $5.00 per flight but no one in Square Butte had the money to take advantage of his offer.

The town was looking forward to a prosperous future for the area but widespread drought soon dashed those hopes.

Enrollment hit a peak of thirty-five students in 1936 and a low of only eighteen in 1959.  Over the forty-nine years the school was open it averaged only twenty students per year.

The square butte after which the town and school are named.  There are lots of interesting rock formations throughout the area.

A pair of horses in a pasture just north of the school.  One was curious, the other not so much.

Another interesting site in Square Butte can be seen here:  The Frozen Corpse in the Jail

Historic information for this post courtesy of the United States Department of the Interior, the National Park Service and the National Register of Historic Places Program.

Photographed on April 19, 2018.