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Calf Creek is in McCulloch County southwest of Brady just south of US 190.
Go south on 190 about 10 miles to Farm Road 1311 and turn left. Calf Creek
is about three miles down 1311. Baker's
book shows two photos, one of which is a stone wall marking a building site, and
the other is an interior shot of a piano in an old, four-room schoolhouse.
I found the schoolhouse quite easily, and it looked to be in pretty much the
same condition on October 30, 1999 as it was when photographed by Baker in
1984. I didn't find the piano, but I did find an old stove in one of the
rooms.
Calf Creek was originally called Deland, and then the name was changed to
Tucker before it finally became known as Calf Creek. The founders of the
original town, the Delands, settled in the area in 1874. They had moved
from Kansas.
Update added 12/20/03: I receivd an email from a lady who lives in
Beaumont, Texas and who has relatives living near Calf Creek. She says
that the schoolhouse has since been torn down. She offered to send me
photos of the site, and I'll post them here when I get them.
Updated added 1/7/04: I have received the photos
mentioned above, and they are at the bottom of this page.
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This is the photo of the school classroom that appears in Baker's book, along
with the accompanying caption. |
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These
are two photos I took on October 30, 1999. The upper photo is an exterior
shot of the old, four-room schoolhouse. The interior is rotting out and is
debris-strewn. The structure itself seems pretty solid and could probably
be put back into use if there was ever a need.
The lower photo is of one room in the interior of the
school. I couldn't find the piano shown in the first photo above, but
there was this old stove! |
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| Above and below are two photos of the
schoolhouse taken in late 2003. As you can see, it's been mostly, but
not completely, torn down. The building was apparently dismantled to
this condition by a local rancher who wanted to reuse the materials.
He apparently stopped once he had enough, and the building had been in this
state of partial destruction for about a year as these photos were taken.
The person who provided these photos is a descendant of the
town's original settlers, and, since the building was torn down to this
extent anyway, her family used some of the bricks to construct a porch for
her in-laws's house. It makes for a nice connection to the family's
past.
As you can tell by the location of the chimney, which is
still standing, these two photos were taken from a vantage point on the
other side of the building from the photo above that I took 1999. |
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