Moorhead Public Schools - 1870 to 2050 - Moorhead, MN - Timelines on Waymarking.com

This timeline is located in the PAC lobby. The lobby can be visited by the public when events are held in the PAC, the cafeteria or the gyms. Waymarkers would not need to buy tickets to view the timeline.

When this newest section of the middle school was constructed a timeline of Moorhead public education, two display cases of artifacts, and a display of jackets and uniforms hangs above the timeline.

The title is "Moorhead Schools Timeline of our History ...", which is written in metal letters. The timeline is divided into panels by decades, starts with a panel of events and people from the 1870s, the last panel is for the 2050s. Currently (2021) the 2000s panel is the last one to be filled in.

The first block of text reads;
The first school in Moorhead started in 1873. Moorhead’s first high school graduation took place in 1883 with one graduate. In 1880, the first high school was built and occupied until 1919 when a new high school was constructed.

The elementary schools were called “ward schools.” Each of the four wards had one school with approximately four classrooms per school.

In addition to the city schools, there were numerous county schools in rural Clay County.

Currently, the last block of text reads;
Work by five community task forces led to a reorganization of the grade-level configuration I the district. Passage of a bond referendum in 2002 resulted in the building of Horizon Middle School and S.G. Reinertsen Elementary School. The new and renovated schools reversed a decade-long enrollment decline, and the schools, along with the community, began to grow again. Numerous housing and business projects sprouted up near the new schools.

During this reorganization, several schools were sold, closed or repurposed, including Lincoln Early Childhood Center, Edison, Washington, Riverside, and Townsite Centre.

Here is the text of the timeline:
~ Reverend Oscar Elmer and Judge James H. Sharp are credited with being the first advocates for schools in Moorhead.

~ At a Clay County commissioners meeting on April 3, 1873, a resolution was passed that formed a school district in Moorhead.

~ The first Moorhead School building was constructed in 1874 on the corner of Second Avenue and Sixth Street South.

~ Moorhead’s first high school was built in 1880. Following the death of President William McKinley in 1901 the city’s memorial service was held at this building.

~ One of Moorhead’s most notable alumna, Ada Comstock graduated from Moorhead High School in 1892 and would go on to become the president of Radcliffe College in Massachusetts. She was inducted into the Moorhead High School Hall of Honor as an inaugural member in 2004.

~ The first Moorhead High School yearbook was published in the spring of 1914. The yearbook took the name Cho-Kio, which is a Native American word that means halfway. This baseball team photo is from the 1916 yearbook.

~ This etching, drawn by MHS alum Jenna Driscoll, commemorates the day in 1914 when a group of Moorhead High School juniors climbed to the top of the high school’s cupola and changed Moorhead’s school color to orange and black.

~ Ellen “Nellie” Hopkins, an 1896 Moorhead High graduate, began teaching at the First Ward in 1908 and would later become the school’s principal. Hopkins Elementary School was named in her honor. This photo (left to right) shows three Moorhead legends: Edgar Sharp, S.G. Reinertsen, and Ellen Hopkins.

~ This panoramic photo was taken in 1924 outside the recently built Moorhead High School. The building had been open just a few years. Note the dirt road in front of the school. This building still stands and is known as Townsite Centre.

~ During the 1928 state championship basketball game more than 1,000 local residents gathered in the Moorhead High School auditorium to hear the game’s broadcast via a special connection provided by Northwest Nell Telephone Company.

~ The Moorhead basketball team was the first to win back-to-back state championships in Minnesota. They accomplished this in 1928, pictured, and 1929. The Spuds were coached by Glenn Hanna (back row left), who was inducted into the Minnesota Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1986.

~ The first time the word “SPUDS” appeared in print was on the 1923 football jerseys.

~ S.G. Reinertsen was Moorhead’s superintendent from 1926 to 1955. He has been Moorhead’s longest-serving school leader. An elementary school in south Moorhead was named for him in 2004.

~ “The Spud,” Moorhead High School’s student newspaper, was first published in 1933. Here is a photo of the first issue.

~ Central Junior High School opened in the fall of 1937. The building was located on the current site of the downtown Hornbacher’s and would serve our community until the late 1970s.

~ The first homecoming was held in October of 1941 and was called “Spud Day.” Homecoming buttons first appeared in 1954.

~ Dorothy Dodds graduated from Moorhead High School in 1941 and would go on to develop in Minnesota. She was inducted int the Moorhead High School Hall of Honor in 2012, and a Moorhead elementary school was named in her honor in 2017.

~ Instrumental music as Moorhead High School has a rich tradition dating back to the 1890s. During the 1940s the band and orchestra rehearsed in a new music rehearsal room that was built on to the northeast corner of the high school. Longtime high school band and orchestra teachers include: Lauren Buslee 1949-1975, Vincent Pulicicchio 1951-1986, and Doug Enstrom 1985-2010.

~ Cross country was first offered as a sport at MHS in the early 1950s. Rudy Arechigo won the Minnesota State High School League cross country championship in 1953.

~ Following the Homecoming football game in 1952, Moorhead High School Queen Elvina Kassenberg presented presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower with a birthday cake during his campaign train’s stop in Moorhead.

~ The first Spud mascot was created out of paper mache (left) by Moorhead High School student Brian Coyle in 1962. There have been numerous versions of spuddy since then.

~ When the new high school opened in 1967, the student and staff were greeted with a large mural in the main lobby created by Spud alumni Doug Eckheart and John Carlander. The mural’s theme is “The Panorama of Education.”

~ From 1949 to 2009 the Moorhead boys basketball team had three coaches: Shocky Strand (1949-1967), Bill Quenette (1968-1982). And Chucj Gulsvig (1983-2009). All of them led the Spuds to state tournament appearances, and all three have been inducted into the Moorhead High School Hall of Honor.

~ Girls athletics became sanctioned by the Minnesota State High School League in the fall of 1972. Longtime Moorhead educator and coach Paula Bauck (back row, left) was instrumental in making this happen.

~ Moorhead school spirit at the junion high level was aided by their own cheerleaders in the 1970s and 1980s. Here is the 1974 squad from Central Junior High.

~ Manny Marget (left) did radio play-by-play for Spud athletic events from 1934 until 1973. Larry Knutson (right) began doing play-by-play for the Spuds in 1979. Combined, these two legends have been the “voice of the Spuds” for over 80 years.

~ The Spuds football team won 28 straight games in the early 1970s, and this team won the state championship in 1971.

~ During this decade Special Olympics was started in the Moorhead Schools by long-time teachers Lowell Bolger and Ron Hess. Since then hundreds of students, including these from 2016, have taken part in events such as track, bowling, bocce ball, swimming, and golf.

~ Musical theatre has been a source of community pride for over a century in Moorhead. Margaret Newton, Grace Holland, and Rebecca Meyer-Larson have directed such shows as: “South in Sonora” (top), “Hello Dolly” (middle), and “Jesus Christ Superstar” (bottom).

~ Robert Asp was a counselor at North Junior High during the 1960s and 1970s. During that time he had a dream to construct a replica of a Viking sailing ship. In 1982 “The Hjemkomst” sailed from Duluth, Minn., to Bergen, Norway. Later, North Junior High was named in Robert Asp’s honor.

~ In 1997 and 2009 the communities of Moorhead and Fargo experienced floods of epic proportions. School was closed for weeks due to the flood conditions. Moorhead students were instrumental in sandbagging and keeping the city safe.

~ In 1998 the School Board approved the addition of an elementary Spanish immersion program, which began for the 1999-2000 school year.

~ The Moorhead High School Carolers have been singing holiday music for the community since the late 1950s.

~ Chuck Watson, shown here accepting a Spud hockey logo created by Moorhead High School art students, was the first coach of the Moorhead High hockey team in 1965. The Moorhead team (below) would make its first appearance at the State Hockey Tournament in 1992.

~ As part of the 2002 bond referendum, Moorhead High School received a three-story ninth-grade center and commons addition. Construction of a new fieldhouse connected Moorhead High to the Sports Center.

~ Horizon Middle School opened in the fall of 2004 for students in grades 6 through eight.

~ S.G. Reinertsen Elementary School was constructed in 2003, This view is looking north with Eighth Street on the left side and the I-94 interchange in the upper left corner,

~ In 2000, a 50-yeardream of having a home stadium for our Moorhead Spud football team was realized. Numerous community members and business partners raised the necessary funds to see the project completed.

~ In 2001 the Moorhead Sixth Grade Orchestra was invited to play at the International Midwest Clinic in Chicago. Accompanying the group were teacher Brian Cole and lone-time Moorhead principal Dr, Betty Myers.

~ Moorhead Community Education offers hundreds of courses each year to the community. Courses in arts and crafts, cooking, computers, health and recreation. And more, along with specific classes for adults with disabilities, are offered through three annual catalogs.
Community Education also serves our community through early Childhood Family Education, youth camps and service learning, and Adult Basic Education.

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