The Iowa Hill School - A Bit of History   

                                                                       1855 - 1982

 The Iowa Hill School began in 1855 a private school taught by J.S. Binney. Two years later, in 1857, it became the first public school and the teacher was A. Stratton. There were other schools along  the Iowa Hill Divide but in 1863 the Monona Flat School joined with the Iowa Hill School. This old school house was west of the town, two rooms built on a hillside. A second building of one story, two rooms, was built in 1878 on Main Street. In 1882, when Thompson and West published the History of Placer County, 117 children attended with Mr.H.M. Drew as the principal and Miss A.C. Murphy as the primary teacher, J.W. Chinn, whose home stood across from the old Iowa Hill Store, now burned, was the clerk for the school. That home later was the boyhood home of Ellard Schwab. When it caught fire from a wood stove in 1921, most of Iowa Hill was destroyed by the big fire.

 By july 26, 1895 when the County Superintendent of schools P.W.Smith issued his report, 91 children, of which 23 were Indian, were attending the Iowa Hill School. Out of 141 students, 8 were foreign born. The school consisted of two teachers and an average attendance of 85 children with 49 enrolled in the primary grades and 42 in grammar school grades. The Superintendent considered the grounds around the school insufficient and unimproved. It did have an inside toilet called a water closet and was considered "well ventilated".

 In 1901, at the start of the new year, Iowa Hill School received $560 from the County's allocation of state funds. Bath, Butcher Ranch, and Damascus schools on the Iowa Hill Divide received $224 from the state funds and Yankee Jims received $280. And a new school was established at Centerville, a small community near Blue Wing in January of 1901.

 In 1888 the Iowa Hill School had two teachers, Sam Watts and Anna Schwab. That building burned in the 1921 fire, It had a bell tower and a bell to call the students to class. After the fire, the bell was not recovered.

 In 1922, the one room school was constructed. The Iowa Hill School had its own Board Of  Trustees and hired its own teachers. Mrs. Leona George was the teacher for over nine years. To keep the school open when its enrollment had dropped, she boarded several children to send to the school. Average attendance was between 9 to 20 children during theses years.

 As the enrollment dropped, Iowa Hillians voted to join the Foresthill School District. After several years, they voted to withdraw from Foresthill and join the Colfax Elementary School District, which now supervises the educational program at Iowa Hill. But from 1959 to 1978, the Iowa Hill School was closed for lack of pupils. In 1971, the Colfax Elementary School District Board of Trustees sold the school building to the Iowa Hill Community Club without calling for a vote from the Iowa Hill residents.

 In 1979, Iowa Hill again had school children but no school building. It was at this time that the concept of Independent Study for them was developed through conferences with the County Superintendent of Schools, Colfax Elementary School administrators, and parents.

 The Iowa Hill Road as it descends to the North Fork of the American River and up the other side was considered too steep and too narrow for the transportation of school children from Iowa Hill to Colfax.

 The determination was made by the California Highway Patrol. Even the use of a small van was prohibited for safety reasons.