High Bluff School was established at this site in 1859 with John Norquay as its teacher. The school was destroyed by fire in 1876. A new school was built in 1879 and was called High Bluff No. 13, becoming Old High Bluff School when the High Bluff Village School No. 771 was formed. The school was replaced by a new structure in 1893. It closed permanently in 1963, merging with Cochrane School No. 43, North High Bluff School No. 23, Flee Island School No. 527, Portage Creek School No. 505, and High Bluff Village School No. 771 to become High Bluff Consolidated School No. 2418. The building was sold and used as a private residence.
Some of the teachers who worked at Old High Bluff School through the years were John Norquay, Mr. Gerrond, Mary Bell, K. Hammond, Annie M. Cole, Winnie E. Jeffery, Millie Tweddle, Violet Y. Wilton, Lens J. Grant, A. G. Huskins, Kennina M. McKay, May Tidsbury, Ethel Rowley, Vida Lloyd, Ellen Cook, Miss Limbrick, I. Steen, R. G. Joseph, Sylvia G. Olson, Phyllis McKay, Colena Muir, Bernice Nixon, Annie Cruickshank, Marion P. Wilkes, Kathleen Trimble, Sally Williamson Hicks, E. Martins, Miss Clark, Gwendalyn Lewis, Shoemaker, John Jackson, Mrs. Duchny, Eva Clarice May Linden (Spring 1947 - Spring 1949), Vera Irene Arrell (Fall 1949 - Spring 1951), Elizabeth Shoemaker (Fall 1951), John P. Jackson (pt Spring 1952), Vivian M. Prestash (pt Spring 1952 - Spring 1953), Mary Rutledge (Fall 1953 - Spring 1954), Franz Solmundson (?-?), Mary Rutledge, Ethel M. Mathews, and Ethel Tidsbury.
Old High Bluff School (no date) by A. B. Fallis
Source: Archives of Manitoba, School Inspectors Photographs,
GR8461, A0233, C131-1, page 9.
Old High Bluff School commemorative sign (2010)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.993140, W98.149190
denoted by symbol on the map above
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.
Rural Schools of Portage la Prairie School Division #24 by Muriel Wright, 1996.
Board of Education registers (A 0050), GR7643, Archives of Manitoba.
Summative half-yearly returns for school districts (A 0051), GR0571, Archives of Manitoba.
Board of Education meeting minutes and office files (A 0052), GR1622, Archives of Manitoba.
School division half-yearly attendance reports (E 0757), Archives of Manitoba.
We thank Shirley Christianson and Nathan Kramer for providing information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 4 October 2023
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