Nicholson School

The school opened as Collingsworth County's farmland filled. By the late 1920s all the land in the county suitable for farming was occupied, and in 1930 the county kept a mixed economy of cattle ranches and more than 246,000 acres of farmland, with about 162,000 acres in cotton alone and 26,400 cattle on the ranges. Railroads tied the area to markets, and by the mid-1920s good roads linked Wellington to Childress, Shamrock, Clarendon and Memphis. The Depression then cut the number of farms from 2,112 in 1929 to 1,358 in 1940.

What the plaque says

Nicholson School Once the center of a thriving agricultural community, Nicholson School was named for county judge Arthur Clyde Nicholson, during whose term the school was opened in 1915. As Nicholson School increased in enrollment, reaching a peak of 150 students in 1929, additional teachers and classrooms were added. Consolidation with other rural schools began in 1934 and was completed in 1937, when the last classes at Nicholson School were held. A concrete cellar near this site is all that remains of the original school property. (1984)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tower Station and U-Drop Inn — 10 mi
  Shamrock's 1936 Conoco station and cafe at the corner of Route 66 and US-83, sketched in the dirt with a nail, named by a schoolboy and saved by the town.
• Devil's Rope and Old Route 66 Museum — 23 mi
  Barbed wire and the Texas road in McLean's old brassiere factory: the fence that closed the open range, from the salesmen who sold it to the Panhandle ranches it divided.
• Phillips 66 Station, McLean — 23 mi
  A 1929 cottage-style Phillips 66 station on First Street in McLean, the town I-40 went around last and whose Route 66 business district stayed much as it was.

More markers nearby

• Site of Lutie School — 3.8 mi
• Site of Dozier Schoolhouse — 6.1 mi
• The Red River Plunge of Bonnie and Clyde — 8.1 mi
• Rocking Chair "Ranche" (1883-1893) — 8.1 mi