North Dakota is our state of choice for pheasant hunting. The wonderfully desolate landscape is dotted with remnants of past lives – abandoned homesteads, equipment and my favorite . . . old school houses.
- Click for a better view.
We drove by this one room school house for 9 years, always talking about how we should get a group picture in front of it. We never got it done until this year. Worth the wait I think.
The Cherry Butte School is east of Regent, ND and is dated 1913. Our guide’s father went to school here. It is literally in the middle of nowhere. Can you imagine the class looking out those windows and watching a North Dakota storm blowing in, wondering if they were going to make it home?
This is where they learned reading, writing and arithmetic. The kids from this room went on to feed the world.
The playground.
The hunters.
Birdhunter 
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I have happened upon countless numbers of old buildings in my upland pursuits. Every time, I’m fill with questions I wish they could answer. They’re a rare treasure that typically never gets a second thought. I can’t hardly go by one without taking a break to poke around or snap a few photos. Excellent photo essay!
I’ve never made it to ND, but plan to one day for a combination upland and waterfowl trip.
Thanks! I can’t help but wonder what happened to the folks that are now long gone. A few years back we were turkey hunting in Missouri and found an abandoned homestead. We went into the dilapidated home and it was as if the residents had just vanished. Clothes still hanging in the closet, furniture still there and a well worn and obviously heavily studied bible resting on a piano. You wonder how it comes to that.
I was told this last weekend (Aug. 10) by my cousin who is a UPS driver that I could find Cherry Butte school on your site. I was born and raised in Regent, N. D. My mother who turned 92 years old on July 4th has told us many stories of going to Cherry Butte school. She is the oldest in a family of 18 children so many of that family and the neighbor families attended that school. I have never been out to the school. I moved to Washington and lived there for 41 years. After we retired we came back to ND. We settled in Garrison where my brother and mother live. My husband spends pheasant hunting season in Regent every year. They hunt south of Regent on my nephew’s land which he inherited from his mother. One of these days I will have to drive to Regent and do some searching of Cherry Butte school and the various places that my mother’s family lived. Thank you for sharing the wonderful pictures. 🙂
Thanks! I am glad you enjoyed the post. I hope you get to show these pictures to mother. You should visit the school and the places your family lived before they are all gone.
Wow thanks for posting this. My grandmother went to that school as a kid.
You are welcome, L!