The Old Fort School District was organized formally in March 1917 in the Rural Municipality of Mountain. In the summer of 1920, a one-room schoolhouse measuring 36 feet by 24 feet was built by James A. Wright of Winnipegosis at the northeast corner of NE29-39-24W, overlooking an oxbow of the Swan River. Classes began in November 1920. Later, a barn, outhouses, and teacherage were built on the site, and fence was erected around it. The school closed in June 1965 and, two years later, the district was dissolved and its catchment area became part of the Swan Valley School Division.
Among the teachers of Old Fort School were Edward P. Beckett (1920-1922), Miss Ellen Francis (1924-1926), Mrs. McKinnon (1929), Mr. Coldwell (1930), Margaret Dickerson (1932-1933), Miss Hinchliffe (1936-1937), John Kastrukoff (late 1930s), Miss June M. Connolly (1949-1950), Miss Linda Clark (1951-1952), Miss Lois Edie (1952), Miss E. Lee (1952), Miss Nancy J. Tulik (1953), Doug W. Burke (1954-1955), Mrs. E. McKay (1955-1956), Miss Margaret Sayer (1957-1960), Mrs. G. A. Price (1961-1964), and Olga M. Beier.
Old Fort School (no date) by J. S. Peach
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-3, page 47.Site Coordinates (lat/long): N52.39033, W100.87424
denoted by symbol on the map above
School District Formation Files [Old Fort School District No. 1868], GR1688, E0027, Archives of Manitoba.
“Tenders,” Swan Valley Star and Times, 29 July 1965, page 13.
One Hundred Years in the History of the Rural Schools of Manitoba: Their Formation, Reorganization and Dissolution (1871-1971) by Mary B. Perfect, MEd thesis, University of Manitoba, April 1978.
“Looking back,” Swan Valley Star and Times, 16 October 1986, page 28.
Boots, Buggies & Buses: Swan Valley Schools in Quest of Education, Swan Valley School Division No. 35, circa 1998.
We thank Judith Somerville-Jones for donating the minute book (1918-1960) of the Old Fort School District. Edward Price provided additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 24 October 2022
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