While photographing this closed schoolhouse, I was approached by a retired farmer who barked, “What yah want?” “Just admiring it,” I said. His wrinkled face lite up. “My kid brother and I spent 12 years at the old Meyer School. Wanna go inside?” After sorting through a key ring, he opened the door. Inside was so well preserved it seemed the kids had just finished class. It contained the original wooden desks, a potbelly stove between well-used blackboards, a yellowed portrait of George Washington and an American flag with 48 stars. There were about 8,000 of these one-room schoolhouses across the state during the first half of the 20th century. This form of rural education ended in Stearns County in 1971. However, there is still a one-room schoolhouse operating in Angle Inlet at the northern tip of Minnesota.
