Schoolhouse on wheels

Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette

Haigler historians and a crew from Williams Midwest House Movers of Hastings position the "67 South" rural schoolhouse on a new foundation in the heart of Haigler. The 15-ton, 110-year-old building moved 31?2 miles out of a cornfield and along a country road, Highway 34 and Haigler's main street Aug. 8. Over the next two years, volunteers will restore the one-room schoolhouse and turn it into a museum, preserving the history of the pioneer school and the community that calls itself "Nebraska's cornerstone." The school's original tapered, 12-foot wooden flagpole (that builders fastened flat to the front of the school and poked through the crest of the roof) was preserved many years ago by Dundy County history buff Laura Pearl Wall, who plans to donate it back to the preservation project. Although some preservationists would really like to restore the building to its original clapboard siding, the stucco siding (added possibly in the 1930s) survived the move into town without any new cracks. Haigler carpenter Ben Shaw kicked up quite a dust storm when he had to remove some of the stucco so the school would sit snugly on its new foundation. Williams' crew included John Williams (with Shaw, above), Steve Carriker driving the truck, and Corey Wiseman. Watching the move into town were Barbara Jones of Wray, Colo., whose mother, Gladys Brown Shafer, taught at 67 South in the early- to mid-1920s; and Dorothy Goodell, whose husband, Ercil, was a student of Shafer. "Ercil talked a lot about his 'little ol' school," Dorothy said. Barbara sighed, "I wish I'd asked my mother more questions, or remembered more."