An historic one-room log schoolhouse in the Beaver Valley was among the casualties of last week’s windstorm, but it’s expected to be repaired and reopened.
Regional District of Kootenay Boundary facilities manager Mark Daines said a tree fell overnight Thursday on the Park Siding school, which the RDKB owns.
Daines said a number of “very healthy trees, very large in width and height” were blown over on the property.
“It was amazing the amount of force and the sounds that they made when they actually broke off,” he said. “The neighbors could hear it from a kilometer down the road.”
One tree landed on the school’s roof and caused some damage but Daines said the building is “pretty much intact.”
The RDKB scrambled to get crews on site to remove the tree and debris on Friday. They discovered a couple of holes in the roof and some structural damage. The roof was then tarped to protect the building from rain, which began to fall about half an hour later.
“The good news is that no water penetrated into the schoolhouse,” Daines said. “So it’s staying dry and it’s tight as a button.”
He said they are working with their insurer and getting a quote on repairs, with plans to restore the roof to as close to its original appearance as possible. Daines was “pleasantly surprised” to see that while four truesses and a beam will need replacing or realignment, none of the school’s contents was damaged. He said one of the contractors told him that the reason the building is still standing is because of the quality of its original workmanship.
The school was built by John P. Bell and opened in 1915 (not 1912, as a sign at the site and other sources indicate). It only operated for seven years before it was replaced by a new school in 1922. In 1989, the old school was moved to its present location along Highway 3B. The building was restored over the next two years and turned into a museum, cared for by the Beaver Valley and Pend d’Oreille Historical Society.
Daines was on site for much of Friday assessing the situation and contacting contractors and insurers.
“We’re going to do as much as we can, as quickly as we can, to get the building restored so that we can continue to show tours to the general public and schoolkids,” he said.
The schoolhouse wasn’t the only RDKB facility that suffered from the windstorm: Daines said the disc golf course at Beaver Valley Family Park saw over 20 trees blown onto the course and one of the disc golf targets damaged. The course is temporarily closed until the windfall is cleared. The work will begin today. The campground at the park was not affected and remains open.
