I came across this water pump by accident. I was reading the local newspaper and discovered a nice article about a water pump at the former Crystal School, north of Rocky Point, OR. Low and behold, this water pump sits near a few waymarks that I had posted awhile back and I hadn't known about this water pump. Until now. The following article is taken from the Herald and News newspaper regarding the history of this water pump and reads:
Crystal School Water Pump
A pipeline to the past
The rusted water pump is all that remains of the schoolhouse
About 30 miles northwest of Klamath Falls, along Westside Road, an old hand water pump sits on the northern edge of a picnic area in the Crystal Springs Recreation Area. The pump is the only remnant of the Crystal
School, which was located in that spot from 1893 to 1942, according
to the Klamath County Museum. Crystal School was planned and built by D.G. Brown and Ben Peterman at the head of Crystal Creek, according to museum records.
Once a student
Grant Brown was a student at the school for 13 years, along with his siblings, cousins and other children from the small community. Brown’s grandfather was the D.G. Brown that built the school, and the family dominated the enrollment. “It was a one-room schoolhouse,” Brown, now 88, recalled. He started at the school in 1931, but three generations of the Brown family also attended school there, with attendance varying between five and 13 students. The water pump, the last remaining piece of the school, sat about 30 feet away from the building,Brown said. The school itself burned down in 1945 after being rented out while Brown was in the Navy, he said. Its location is now obscured by the road, which runs over its former spot. “It all went up in smoke,” Brown said. Because of the water pump’s mechanics, you could cover a hole with your hand and build up quite a pressure in the pump, Brown said. “It was fun to squirt your friends,” he said. The water pump itself still works, Brown said, but he thinks the foot valve must have something stuck in it, because you can feel the water pumping, but the valve won’t hold any water, he explained. He hopes to get a neighbor’s help to fix the pump. The water from the pump is the same as the cold and clear water in Crystal Creek, Brown said.
Living Memories
Brown’s older sister Ellen Riach remembers walking down the path from the schoolhouse to the pump for a drink of the water. “I remember how cold it was and how fresh it tasted,” she said. “I always feel sad when I see the pump.” Brown still has many memories of Crystal School, and the history behind it. His grandfather came to Oregon from California on an information review trip, checking the depth of the grass in the marshes in 1891, and later sold his orchard in California for land near the Crystal Creek. After traveling both by rail and in wagons through Klamath Falls, Keno, Odessa and Fort Klamath, he brought his family to their new homestead, where he helped establish both the school district and a post office.
Back Then
School district No. 18 included not only the Crystal School, but also schools at Odessa and one that moved with the camp of the Pelican Bay Lumber Company, according to the museum. Brown remembers his first teacher, Alice Koss, later Nye, well too. She was married in September of his eighth grade year, and gave birth to a daughter just one day after the last day of school that summer, after she took the students to Klamath Falls for a movie and a picnic in Moore Park. The school building was a white wooden frame building, with a small front porch, and a place for firewood in the back, Riach said. “I remember riding horseback to school,” she said. Because the map the students used for geography hung on the south wall of the building, both Brown and Riach said they still get mixed up about the right locations of states and countries due to their perspective of the map while in the classroom, like thinking that New York is on the West Coast.
“Maybe that’s why I’ve always had trouble with directions,” Riach said with a laugh. Brown and his wife lived on the family property for several years before buying a ranch at Hildebrand, which was near Bonanza. They still own the original family homestead property. The school site was repurposed as a picnic area in June 1970, the museum notes, citing a Herald and News article from the time.
I found out that this pump was made by F.E. Meyers & Bro., a company based in Ashland, Ohio. I'm assuming this company is no longer in business. There was also a patent date on it from March 7, 1911.
Access to this water pump is easy. Just pull into the Crystal Springs Rest Area and walk to my posted coordinates. You can't miss it, it sits very close to the road.