School District 53 – Trego School – started in September of 1905. I finally understand why it’s District 53 – it started when the community was still in Flathead County. Matter of fact, Flathead County had only split from Missoula County in 1904. Lincoln County began in 1909 – 5 years later. The lower numbers – such as Troy’s District 1 – are Lincoln County numbers. A lot was happening in 1904 – and the map of School District 53 showed another thing I hadn’t realized. In 1905, there was no Fortine Creek. The map clearly reads Edna Creek. The dam running logs down to Eureka Lumber was built in 1904, and 1904 was the year for the first railroad mainline relocation. The first main line, running back of Marion to Libby was replaced by a line running from Stryker, through Trego, Fortine and Eureka, then dropping into the Kootenai valley to run down to Libby. (The second mainline relocation occurred along with Libby Dam). The map shows that railroad – and the predecessor of highway 93 – both running to the west of Dickie Lake. No road shows where the highway now is to the east of the lake. Thinking on it, School District 53 was there before either Fortine or Trego received the communities names. Trego was a nameless construction boom town for the first time. 1904 brought the railroad relocation, a new dam being built (on Edna Creek, before it was named Fortine Creek) and a new Ranger station was under construction at Ant Flat. Small wonder that Flathead County got news of a new community that needed a school district ASAP. It would be over sixty more years before the second railroad relocation and new dam (this one on the Kootenai) would repeat the situation to build a new school for District 53. When we get the copies of those old maps ready, we’ll add them to an article – but for now, it’s kind of neat to realize that School District 53 means that Trego school was created before Lincoln County – and the higher district number means that it was a Flathead County district and got the number from Kalispell. |
School District 53 — Older Than Lincoln County
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