Though it may not have been opened for classes in the same year, the stone plaque over the elaborate entrance indicates that construction on the school was begun in 1917, 100 years ago today. The first school in the county began teaching classes in 1865 and by 1867 census records indicate a student population of 80. That first schoolhouse was built of logs originally cut and hewed for a jail at Silver Bow. It was 20 by 24 feet in size, with a nine foot ceiling and was hauled from its first location and donated to the district for a schoolhouse. It was replaced in January, 1873 by a new building which cost, altogether - building, bell, seats etc., almost $3,500.00.
It is likely that it was the present school which replaced that building in 1917. Built to serve the town and county for many years, the school has certainly accomplished that task.
Many schools have faced various types of difficulties in recent years, but Deer Lodge's Powell County High School faced a bit of an unusual problem in 2014. In recognition of the town's having been home to the Montana state prison for close to 150 years, the school adopted the name
The Wardens for its sports teams and a caricature of a prison warden as the school mascot some 50 years ago. In 2014 their right to continue to use the mascot image came into dispute. Lawyers were brought into the fray and the battle was on. To date we are unaware of the outcome but a story on the issue, published in Butte's
Montana Standard and reprinted below, will fill in some of the details.
Logo for high school in Deer Lodge
in jeopardy
Matt Hoffman - Aug 29, 2014
The gunslinging Warden logo that Powell County High School has used for more than 50 years could be facing its final shootout.
The Deer Lodge school’s use of the image is in jeopardy after the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, which trademarked the image in 2006, sent a letter to the school in July asking it to discontinue the illustration. Lawyers for the two groups are negotiating.
“We just hope that the legal representatives can come up with something amenable,” Powell County Superintendent Rick Duncan said. The high school, which enrolled 226 students this year, competes in Class B in the Montana High School Association.
The trademark gives the Rapid City-based university exclusive rights to the image, Duncan said. The Warden name is not disputed.
“There certainly are graphic similarities between the two images,” he said.
Based on images on each school’s website, the logos seem to share the same basic structure. The South Dakota logo hefts a pair of pickaxes that are absent from the Powell County version, and the color schemes are different.
Duncan called life without the Warden logo at the high school “difficult to imagine.”
Several community members in Deer Lodge are furious, Duncan said.
“There’s 50 years of people that graduated from here that have seen that image,” he said.
The university declined to comment, other than to confirm negotiations are ongoing. Duncan was unsure when the issue might be resolved.
From the Montana Standard