Richard Cure — Student 3–7 grade, 1957–1963
In 1963 there were 12 students in 8 grades.
Teachers he remembers
- Dean Wigton
- Jerry Anderson
- Latricha Anderson
- Mrs. Noble
Notes
“Robert Waterhouse, father of Laurita Cure (Richard’s mother). Richard recalls that his grandfather purchased the land and gave it to the school district with the provision that it would return to the family once the school closed.”
Snows of 1960
I do not remember the dates but the internet had articles about the snows of 1960 which started in December when it is usually too cold to get a lot of snow. We remember it as having been 30 inchs of snow over time with lots of wind.
Smoky Angle was under the Kit Carson School district so Kit Carson district supplied the management such as hiring the teachers, providing the supplies for the meals and hiring the cook (who was my mother Laurita Cure). We lived just two miles North of the schoolhouse so it was easy for my mother to precook a lot of the meals at home and bring them to school.
My parents used two cars to run as busses. One went East of the school and the other went West to pick up students. My uncle Jake, my mother's brother, was living with us and helped to drive the school busses. Jake also helped fed cattle out of a trench silo down at the old Peter's place so that when the snows came in December we were put in quite a bind to get all the feeding and farmwork done in addition to driving school kids twice a day. George Lichtenhaun had a county road maintainer that he headquartered at his home and in him we had an extremely good man who lived close to the school and our home. From the school it was 22 miles to Stratton and 25 miles to Kit Carson. We were quite isolated.
The roads going to the East of the school house were very steep and rough and on the first crest of the ridge so the snow blew into that road and once George had busted it out it would blow full again. George gave up on the road and made a trail in the pasture to get around the deep snow in the road.
I do not know how it was decided but it worked out that because of the snow covered roads the busses would pick up the students whose parents agreed, and take them to school for a week or there abouts. Some of the students stayed at our place and a couple of girls stayed at the teacherage with the Andersons to minimize the amount of travel on treacherous roads.
What an event!