A Trip to Geneva, Idaho. Part II

A Typical School Day:

Lynn and Rex were both of school age while Obed and Mary lived in Geneva. A typical school day no doubt would have consisted of getting dressed, eating some  breakfast, and walking the 0.35 mile distance to the school house.

For Lynn and Rex, I will say that the distance to the school is much farther than it looks in the aerial view below makes it seem. I will not, however vouch for how they could have walked the distance uphill through the snow both ways. (If this were  a text message I would insert a smiley here:))

Click on the image for a full size view.

 For a more clear perspective, here is the view of the Geneva Creamery taken from the school. This was taken with a zoom lens at 1x magnification.

Here is a view zoomed in at 10x magnification.

The power lines would be missing. There would probably also be a lot more growth along the old creek (located just past the weeds in the foreground before the creamery). This creek was diverted over ten years ago according to Mr. Delbert Marx, who lives across the street. Other than these changed, it is likely the view hasn't changed much since the days up to 1937 when Grandpa ran the creamery.

At school, Lynn and Rex would have been in the same class. The school had two groups of children, four grades in each group. Only grades four through eight were taught at this old schoolhouse, which would have been six or seven years old when the Gardner family moved from this location. The class sizes were likely only a dozen or so students per class or less. Besides these other students there were likely only the two teachers and an occasional visitor who would be in the school.

Today this school is no longer used. The students from the area are bussed the nearly fourteen miles to Montpelier, Idaho for school.

These two towns are separated by a mountain pass. Geneva is a little valley trapped between this range, and the one pictured behind the creamery in the above photos. This narrow valley and the ranchers and farmers that live in it represent the population of Geneva, Idaho today. All things considered, other than modernization of farming and ranching, very little has changed in this area.