by Keith Atwater, originally published in Around Here Magazine, fall 2025 & winter 2026 issues.
Our children’s education has always been important “around here.” Considering its size, age, and location, El Dorado County earns high marks for its many and varied schools – old and new, large and small, traditional and innovative, public and private. It may seem surprising, but our rural county, launched by the 1849 rush for gold that brought several thousand mostly single men and very few women and children into our foothills, boasts many institutes of education; each with its own colorful history. Long-time locals still here today have vivid memories of their own student days, and recall tales passed down to them from their parents.
Education for a growing population of Gold Country children started early. According to the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park brochure: “Coloma had one of the state’s first schoolhouses, built in 1851. In 1858 the old Coloma courthouse was converted into a school and served a growing population of students until it burned in 1919. Undaunted, students went to school in the Odd Fellows Hall across the road, and an abandoned schoolhouse at the Kelsey slate mine was moved, reassembled, and reopened in January 1920, continuing until 1957. This same school was restored as a living history museum, then destroyed when hit by a fully loaded overturned logging truck in 1987. Since 1995 it’s been open to the public as a re-created 1925 school.”
Old Coloma Schoolhouse
A Mountain Democrat obituary from 1968 states that then 92-year-old Stella Ralston Tracy attended “the famed Conklin Placerville Academy” at 595 Main Street in Placerville. Opened in the fall of 1861, this multi-story private school (it’s not clear if it was just for girls or co-ed) operated until it was bought in 1890 and converted into the Ivy House hotel and boarding house. Postcards from a century later show original ivy plantings still growing. It was demolished in the early 1960s and its site is now a parking lot across from the Druid monument at Cedar Ravine, Main, and Clay streets.
A long-time resident of Gold Hill, whose Italian grandparents settled here over a century ago – has these nostalgic memories of Coloma School. “I attended in the second grade (in 1958). Bernice Ferris was the teacher there – the only teacher as I recall. I remember her being very creative. She instilled my interest in art. My favorite times were playing baseball in the field between the schoolhouse and the American River. All the grades played together. Another fond memory is that on most days, Pearly Monroe (son of a local pioneering African American family) would take his daily walk past the school and wave at us all. He always wore a beautiful white shirt and suspenders. He seemed like an especially kind and compassionate person and his presence made me happy. He was in his 80s at the time but had attended Coloma School as a child.” She also remembers well, a year at Gold Hill School, which is now a private home adjacent to the Wakamatsu Farm on Cold Springs Road just west of the current Gold Trail Middle School.
“I was one of two students in first grade in the Gold Hill School House. There were only about 10 kids in the whole K-8 school. My dad and all his siblings went there as well. Dad had to be there early to open it and start a fire in the stove on cold days. I remember the playground mostly, which had a little fishing pond. During recesses, we would take out a string with a clothes pin on it, put on a chunk of bread and fish. We actually caught fish. Our teacher was Mrs. Brown, who was instrumental in the development of Gold Trail School. Our little schoolhouse was charming with the typical old school desks, multiple coat racks, wooden floors and nooks for lunches (from which emanated odors of tuna and bananas). The older students were called upon to help teach the younger students.”
Lotus, known as Uniontown until 1888, has its red (formerly white) little schoolhouse at Bassi and Lotus roads. One history source says it was organized in the spring of 1858, although plaque above the door reads “1869.” Old hardwood floors and a slate blackboard silently proclaim its original purpose, though it was used for community meetings and an annual Christmas pageant. Converted to an art gallery in the 1960s, and then a day care center until the late 1980s, its original school bell in the belfry still rings when the hemp rope is pulled strenuously, as I’m told a bride did at her wedding there a few years ago.
Native American and local history author / historian Guy Nixon recounts this story of the first school in Kelsey: “During the Civil War Kelsey was pro-union while Spanish Falt was pro Confederate. As the children of both communities went to the one-room Kelsey Grammar School, fights began to break out. The Maidu and mixed blood Maidu children had no particular leanings to either side. . . As a result the Indian children were reseated in the middle of the classroom to provide a barrier . . . The important 19th Century Chief Coppa Hembo and some of his tribal people helped build the school. He often visited, to the delight of all the students. He answered their many questions, but always ended his visits explaining the value of education and to stay away from alcohol.”
Guy Nixon remembers his father’s stories as a lad in Kelsey who attended the second schoolhouse, now a sunny yellow but empty wooden building:
“In my father’s class there were children who were miners’, ranchers’, and lumbermen’s kids, but students also descended from Hawaiian people and from local Hill Nisenan and Washoe tribal who had always lived in the area. My father could ride his bicycle to school –real fast – but he had to push it all the way back home. He had a single-shot, 410 shotgun strapped to the handlebars so that he could hunt on his way home. Bill Timm rode a horse to school and always had a carbine attached to the saddle. Henrietta was African American and she rode a donkey to school and she had a double-barreled shotgun with her. Many other kids also brought rifles or shotguns with them to school and they would all put them in the closet by the door during class; the scratches from the front sights are still easy to see on the wall in that closet.
There was no electricity or running water when Dad started attending the school. The older kids had to bring water in from the well. A bucket was inside on a bench with each kid’s drinking cup hung on nails above it. The older kids also had to bring in the firewood. There were kerosine lanterns for light, and slate boards to write on. One teacher taught all the kids from 1st to 8th grade.
Dad had started with Margaret Kelley’s last years of teaching. It was the next teacher, as he recalled, that was there when a big rattlesnake showed up in the school yard, Bill Kelly killed it with a shovel and the teacher went over and cut the rattlesnake’s head off and brought it into the classroom. She then carefully propped the head with the mouth open and demonstrated the venom squirting from the fangs as she squeezed the venom sacs located behind the snake’s eyes. This left a big impression on Dad – and everyone.
During WWII the El Dorado County Sheriff came to class and explained to them that the Japanese were launching balloons that had incendiary explosives on them. Having no photo, he drew on the board sort of what he figured they would look like and told the kids not to go near one but to make note of exactly where they saw it and go immediately to the store in Kelsey (which was the only place with a telephone ) and to immediately ask to speak to the sheriff’s office, and then to take the officer to where they had seen the balloon.”
Further east up the mountain just off Highway 50, another very small rural county school is still educating children in a much newer, bright red schoolhouse. A 2012 Mountain Democrat piece summarized Silver Fork Elementary School’s evolution into a “higher tech” two-room school:
The school, built in the 1950s, has two separate classrooms now instead of one large classroom with movable walls. This has allowed a different teaching configuration. “I used to have to move books and heavy equipment from one room to the other,” said their lead teacher, who taught music, math and science to the upper grade students in one room and then moved to the other room to teach the primary students. Now this teacher’s room is set up permanently with new tables for science experiments and math, science and music displays on the walls.
The 10 students, two teachers and one aide at the kindergarten through 8th grade school are thrilled with the change. New technology fits right in with the clean, modern look of the new counters, matching cabinets and curved student desks on casters that can be moved into a variety of seating configurations. Computers, recent donations not needing to be replaced, are neatly lined up at a computer station along one wall, one for each student.
“When the furniture arrived, the kids helped unpack and they all wanted to be part of the assembling, ” said the other of two instructors. “Each one had a job to do – fitting in screws, screwing a piece together, sitting on the chairs to set the chair height.”
While some of our county’s oldest schools have been saved as historic sites, and our newest schools – like Union Mine High School, opened in 1999 – are thriving, some surprising options exist. Pollock Pines elementary School, for example, built in 1937 and closed in 2014 during the King fire, is for sale! Realtor information notes that it was “built using locally cut and milled fir, was expanded in 1957 and 1972, and features eight large classrooms and offices (designed to provide natural light), a commercial kitchen, multipurpose room, and 5.5 acres of grassy fields, trees, and hillside abutting highway 50.”
While many features of our county’s schools are long gone – one room schoolhouses heated by woodstoves, all ages of children usually taught by an unmarried woman, slate blackboards and white chalk – our community continues its commitment to educate future generations somewhat (but not completely) removed from our rough gold mining origins.
As historic sites, and our newest schools (like Union Mine High School, opened in 1999) are thriving, some surprising options exist. Pollock Pines elementary School, for example, built in 1937 and closed in 2014 during the King fire, is for sale! Realtor information notes that it was “built using locally cut and milled fir, was expanded in 1957 and 1972, and features eight large classrooms and offices (designed to provide natural light), a commercial kitchen, multipurpose room, and 5.5 acres of grassy fields, trees, and hillside abutting highway 50.”
While many features of our county’s schools are long gone – the one-room schoolhouses, with slate blackboards and white chalk, heated by woodstoves, schooling all ages of children, and taught by an unmarried woman; Our community continues its commitment to educate future generations who are somewhat – but not completely – removed from our rough gold mining origins.
Schools of El Dorado County – Part 2. First appeared in the winter 2026 issue of Around Here Magazine
El Dorado County schools have grown over time (as has the county, of course) from one room schoolhouses built by the community, often on donated land using local timber, to two room schoolhouses, to Rescue’s four room school, opened in 1957. In 1965 the first community college branch arrived in portable buildings in the National Guard armory at the county fairgrounds, It was known affectionately around here as UBR, or “University Behind Raley’s.” There are now five public and one private high schools: South Tahoe, El Dorado, Union Mine, Ponderosa, Oak Ridge, the Adventist School (through 10th Grade) and many elementary and middle schools. Some (like the unique Cedar Springs Learning Center) are profiled here.
Children in rural El Dorado County schools had challenges (which their parents and their community overcame). A local book, “History of a Place Called Rescue”, notes that “until 1862 Jayhawk school (near today’s Rescue) was the only school. . . .The Kloepfer children had to walk 3 ½ miles each way to school, crossing Weber Creek.”
The first classes in Jayhawk (also called White Oak Township, Pinchen, Deer Valley and nearby long-gone Jurgens) were held in a local store’s second floor storeroom. When the owner added on a saloon, classes were relocated to a new building. That was after a midsummer local ball raised enough funds! An 1872 Mountain Democrat article called it “an old shed that pretended to be a schoolhouse.”
Fire was always a concern with wooden buildings in the west heated by woodstoves. When Rose Springs School near Rescue burned down in 1905 (one of many losses), a nearby family deeded some land for a new school for 30 dollars, and the Tennessee School (its naming is unclear) was built, with the proviso that it “never be used for a saloon or other immoral purposes.”
This Rescue history book collected long-ago memories from some students. Rose Ellen (Brandon) Cormeny recalls that she attended a one-room schoolhouse “about a mile from our house. My first teacher was James Hodges, Later, my teacher Miss Cornwell implanted big ideas in my head of being a bookkeeper. Another teacher, Rosa Papira, tried her best to make a schoolteacher of me, which nearly happened.” The book also mentioned that -with a minimum of 8 students to stay open – occasionally a married teacher with children was hired to make the quota!
Schools remained small, but very memorable to the students who went there. One very long-time resident remembers this: “We lived on the old Raffetto ranch near Newtown, so I rode the high school bus to go to the two room Smith Flat School. Grades 1 to 4 were in one-room and 5 to 8 in the other room. Lillian Porini was my teacher in the 4th grade and then I think Mrs. Brown was teacher of the older children and also the principal. I remember we liked to play baseball, so we walked across the road and through the barbed wire fence into the pasture where the horse was, made our baseball diamond and played. As I recall, nothing bad ever happened to any of us or the horse. Mrs. Schinn was principal and teacher when I graduated eighth grade, and I think we were well prepared for El Dorado High School. In the afternoon we would wait for the bus at the store/post office which is now the Smith Flat House restaurant.
The school building is still there and was used for the energy and excitement of students, staff, and faculty as they launched the newest school in our county. I recall the diversity of the student body, guys in cowboy boots and hats, girls dressing up as Harry Potter characters at Halloween, Hispanic / Latino students whose families worked in local services and agriculture. This isn’t surprising, as the school serves residents of south county rural areas like Pleasant Valley, Mount Aukum, Somerset, and Diamond Springs. I recall delays opening the school while the busses navigated fresh snowfall. Since growth has been limited in these areas, the current student population stands at around 1000 students. The Class of 2000 school song was a student-composed text whose tune is a throwback to a previous century in American education. It reads: “Nestled in the golden country, to your name we hail! Union Mine our pride and honor always will prevail!”
Another full disclosure: I taught music appreciation and humanities in El Dorado County’s first college in portable buildings behind Raley’s supermarket in the early 1990’s. My students varied in age, educational goals, and interests. These portable National Guard structures had metal sides and roofs, thin carpets, and limited amenities like study areas, food courts, and counseling services. I don’t remember any computers; I brought a boom box and a Kodak carousel slide projector to reach my classes with!
In 1994 the imposing El Dorado Center, a branch of Folsom Lake College, opened, with more buildings added later. Behind this fully-staffed center with soaring ceilings, local residents and visiting guest, can make full use of the community observatory and demonstration garden. Knowledgeable and skilled docents lead tours and present educational programs.
But don’t assume El Dorado County has lost touch with its historic one-room schoolhouse roots or its commitment to quality education. Indian Diggings School on Omo Ranch Road began in 1856 and continues to offer K-8 classes and educational programs with 21st century technology. Its staff of three: the principal/superintendent/teacher, the office administrator, and the custodian are passionate about serving their student population, which varies from eight to twenty. Their enticing website shows happy kids around a campfire and making massive snow men! It brings our school story full circle, as these few Indian Diggings graduates will likely attend Union Mine High School and perhaps El Dorado Center Community College. As our Smith Flat School alum said about her school in the mid-1940s – “we got a good education that prepared us for high school” and beyond.
a 35-year resident of El Dorado County, Keith Atwater writes articles and makes presentations to local churches and organizations like the Sierra Renaissance Society.
@2025/2026 Around Here Magazine/Keith Atwater
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