If one knows where to look, all sorts of historical remnants linger about the back roads of Arkansas, all sorts of history abound. This particular spot lay south along AR-9 out of Mountain View, hidden in plain sight.
Built in 1925 by Robert Dawkins and George Green on donated land, the Turkey Creek Schoolhouse is an unassuming structure, similar to just about any other rural schoolhouse one might imagine. As with just about any old structure in Arkansas, a stone foundation supports a single-story wood frame structure with clapboard siding. A sheet metal gabled roof tops the building that also has front entrances and a row of five windows on each side of the building. A dilapidated well sits out front too, and small outhouses suffering the same neglected, tucked away to the north of the building.
A peek inside finds a space frozen in time. White painted walls and ceilings amplified the light streaming in from the windows. Several rows of benches bordered the room, surrounding a few desks huddled in the center of the room behind a rusty potbelly stove. The front of the room is filled by a standard chalkboard with a seemingly abandoned music lesson.
It was only used a school until 1949, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, along with the State register. I have yet to find a reason beyond it being a 60-year-old building at the time. Used primarily for various community activities these days, it remains in good shape, and a good example of the types of schools that peppered rural Arkansas and the Midwest during that time.
A few locals still reminisce on their school days there, as evidenced in the YouTube video, filmed by local youths in 2012. Sponsored by the Rural Community Alliance, in an effort to preserve local history, it is an interesting and amusing little sit down on the steps with a few former students and their teacher, Mrs. Elsie Compton, age 101.
