Ymir School - Ymir, BC - Former Schools on Waymarking.com

Ymir's first school was built in 1897 and and taught the children of the area for 39 years, until the school met a common fate for wood frame buildings of its era, it burned to the ground in 1936.

As a school was very much a necessity in isolated towns of the 1930s, this school was built post haste and opened in that same year. Inevitable school amalgamation resulted in the closure of the school, likely in the 1980s, and the students now attend school at Salmo, some 13 kilometres to the south. The last year in which a teacher was listed for the school was 1984.

We noticed that the school had been painted a bright yellow & blue last fall (they didn't quite get the job done; a small bit under the eaves remains its old pale blue colour). We have no idea what, if anything, the school is used for today. The village already has an adequate community hall.

As can be seen by the size of this two room school, Ymir was never a very large town, hitting its population zenith in about 1904 at 1,100 and a nadir of 125 during World War II. The class picture below, from 1953, shows a student population of about 34 in grades one to ten.