Canyon Creek Schoolhouse Laboratory 100^th Anniversary

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The Canyon Creek Schoolhouse opened to students in 1894. At that time, the schoolhouse was about a mile from the town of Hamilton.

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A colorized photo of the Canyon Creek Schoolhouse Laboratory with a dirt road leading past it

You might think of a schoolhouse of this time as being a one-room wooden building, but the Canyon Creek Schoolhouse was a two-story building constructed from locally-made bricks.

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Image: Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, 01465

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A man rides a horse over a bridge with a town in the background. Taken from some height.

The schoolhouse was located on the west side of the Bitterroot River near a bridge that connected the town of Canyon Creek to the town of Hamilton, Montana.

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Image: Courtesy of Dr. Marshall Bloom

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In April 1921, the citizens of the Hamilton and Canyon Creek school districts voted to become one school district. Canyon Creek residents had worked for the consolidation, and Hamilton citizens enthusiastically agreed at the voting booth. The next school year would begin in Hamilton, and the schoolhouse would be empty.

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Lines of children on steps of large brick building

In this undated photograph, students pose with their teachers on the steps of the Canyon Creek Schoolhouse in Montana. In the fall of 1921, students would have to cross the bridge over the Bitterroot River to attend school in the town of Hamilton, abandoning their old brick school.

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Image:

2011-F077-003

Courtesy of the Ravalli County

Museum Or RML might have

Museum

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The schoolhouse was not empty for long. In August 1921, it was announced that the laboratory investigating Rocky Mountain spotted fever would lease the building from the school district. The laboratory would move from its log cabin in Victor, Montana, to the schoolhouse in September 1921.

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The front of Canyon Creek Schoolhouse Laboratory, a brick two-story building, on an autumn day

The schoolhouse turned laboratory, circa 1921. Notice the U.S. Public Health Service Laboratory sign. This photo was taken before a fence and animal cages were built.

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Image:

Montana Memories

Rocky Mountain Laboratories, 196

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The laboratory was located in the schoolhouse for only seven years, when a new building constructed especially for research and vaccine production was opened. After the laboratory moved, the Canyon Creek Schoolhouse wasn’t used until Dr. William Jellison bought the building in 1966 and created a museum in it. The exhibits featured science, Native American artifacts, natural science, local artists, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Jellison began working at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) before he had even graduated college and eventually became a Public Health Service officer and entomologist at RML. After his death, the museum’s collections were transferred to the Montana Historical Society in Hamilton. The building sat empty again.

Read his oral history.

Images: Rocky Mountain Laboratories, 2715

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Images: Rocky Mountain Laboratories, 2715

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It wasn’t until August 1995 that the Canyon Creek Schoolhouse began its fourth life—this time as a playhouse for the theater group called The Hamilton Players, who had bought the building from the Jellison family. But the passage of time had done its damage, and the upper floor and attic had to be taken down. Volunteers helped to renovate the building, including a detachment of U.S. Navy SeaBees (the Navy’s construction battalions).

Now you can see a show where children once learned, scientists once produced a life-saving vaccine, and a museum once educated visitors.

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One story red brick building with handicap access ramp under a blue sky

The former schoolhouse became a one-story building. While the upper floors had to be taken down, the Hamilton Players eventually added a lobby, office, Green Room, and back stage.

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Image: Courtesy of

photographer Jon Rounhaus

the Hamilton Players.

Canyon Creek Schoolhouse Laboratory 100^th Anniversary

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Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum

Canyon Creek Schoolhouse Laboratory 100th Anniversary

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Old Version 18

New Version 19

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Canyon Creek Schoolhouse Laboratory 100^th Anniversary