The first school at the Grand Canyon was started July 10, 1911, one year before statehood. Ralph and Niles Cameron loaned the use of a building they owned south of the present head of Bright Angel Trail. This building was locally known as "Cameron's Green House". The first teacher was Miss Grace Miller who taught William W. Bass' four school age children and other kids in the area that made the required number for a school. When Miss Miller left after the spring term to take a job in Wickenburg Miss Hammil took over the rest of the term. During this period, Judge Layton, the county circuit judge acted as school superintendent and recommended Miss Mayflower as the next teacher.

Cameron's Green house. The first schoolhouse at Grand Canyon.

W.W. Bass provided funds for lumber and labor to erect another school building that had a classroom and quarters for the teacher. The building was completed July 27, 1913. Miss Minnie Webb from Payson, Arizona, who had taught several years in China was the first teacher. On April 12, 1914, the community held Easter Services at the school. The pupils decorated the school with many varieties of flowers both wild and domestic.

The 1914-15 school year opened with a new teacher, Miss Loman from California, and 29 pupils.

In 1916 the county built the next school with county funds. This building still stands on the hill south of the Fred Harvey Garage. The school board choose this location because of the proximity to water and steam lines. Between 1922 and 1927 it became necessary to enlarge the building to three rooms and at the same time they constructed a teacherage just west of the school building. A Parent Teachers Association was organized in 1920 and through this organization a lot of improvements came about in the way of playground equipment and entertainment for the school and community.

Grand Canyon Village's first permanent schoolhouse. Bert Lauzon bought it in 1917 and moved it to his homestead where it stands today.

To begin with the playground was a small forest of Pinyon and Juniper trees that the Park Service granted permission to remove. Fred Harvey graciously loaned a large White Motor Co. dump truck with a driver to pull the trees, and Frank Spencer, manager of the Hopi House, permitted his crew of Hopi men to cut up the trees and haul them away.

To make the playground safer all the rocks in the area had to be covered over and they used a fine material, screened by the park service rock crusher to do the job. But the material was so fine that during wet weather the grounds became a muddy mess. To rectify this the school board purchased several carloads of cinders to spread on the grounds. While the new playground was a big improvement there was not much room to play baseball so the rule was, "over the fence is out".

With the cooperation of Senator Carl Hayden and other congressmen and the Park Service, funds were secured for the present elementary school which was finished in 1940. It has been enlarged and improved over a period of time. Since 1940 the high school was built and many other additions and improvements have been made. These later events have been pretty well recorded but I thought it would be in order to document the early history because few if any persons are familiar with this early period.

The building Bass provided in 1913 was purchased by Bert Lauzon in 1917. It was dismantled and hauled by wagon and team to the Lauzon homestead and rebuilt where it still stands as a dwelling. Hubert also notes that he has never been able to locate the site of the Cameron Green house, the first school building.

Used by permission of the Grand Canyon Pioneers Society.

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