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Show Down Memory Lane j BY JOHN J. CREEDON SCHOOL BELLS ARE SILENT IN BINGHAM I School bells are ringing and hap- j py children (at least most of them) I t ara beginning another year learn- f , ing their ABC's and other assorted : subjects in thousands of schools throughout the country, but not so ' in Bingham Canyon. For the first time in the memory E ; of any old timer left around, there is no school in Bingham of any kind. We became aware of this trend a few years back when the ; ' elementary school at Copperfield closed its doors and the students , were transported tto Bingham and f Copperton. Next came the demise ' of the Highland Boy School and ' now this September, Bingham Cen- l tral has ceased to be. rl : . ' L'OriilllW-.- I There is great sadness in a com munity when the sound of children child-ren is gone and when you see the empty school and the naked flag pole without Old Glory standing starkly in the vacant va-cant lot, that just Mr. Creedon and marked the beginning of basketball bas-ketball in Bingham. Until 1925, when the new high school building, Bingham Central now, was completed the first, second sec-ond and third grades used the old Central building, the fourth, fifth and sixth were on the top floor of tho gym, and the seventh, eighth and high school used the old high school building. When the new high school in Bingham was occupied occu-pied in 1925, the old Central School was abandoned and torn down and the first six grades used the old high school. School was discontinued discon-tinued on the top floor of the gym at the same time. In the 1930's the present Bingham Bing-ham High was constructed at Copperton Cop-perton and the school buildings in the Civic Center lot were vacated for school purposes and the old high school was torn down, leaving just the old gym standing. The first six grades then moved up the street where they held forth until this September. Our schools were in a unique position in Bingham. All traffic passed the schools and we watched thj ore wagons and aleds laden with their precious cargoes wend their way to the loading dock at the Rio Grande Depot. We were fascinated by the skill of the "skinners" as the drivers of these vehicles were known. It took great skill to handle six and eight horses with a set of rains for each pair of horses. Runaways were frequent and it is to the credit of these men and the children that there is no record of a fatal accident on the narrow streets. We watched the transition of the horse to the automobile and were equally fascinated by the chugging of the horseless carriage and 1 can remember some of the comments of the old timers that the auto would never succeed, at least in Bingham where the grades were so steep. . Another thrill afforded us was the clang of the fire bell and the sight of the firemen running up or down the street with the hose cart. Sometimes they were lucky enough to charter a horse to pull the cart. It was tricky business to hold back the cart heavily laden with hose and nozzles, when going down hill. last year echoed with the squeals and shouts of children playing. You j fed a pang of longing for the old ! t days. No one seems to remember a school in Bingham before the little one room building that set at the corner of Main and Markham, where the Canyon Hall later was built. Some have a faint recollec-1 recollec-1 tion of hearing of some other site of a small school, but most agree that the one at Canyon Hall was the first recognized school. It was t here that students in the 1 890's and into the first decade of the Twentieth Century learned their reading, writing and arithmetic, if' In those early days the head master or principal was over the entire school. It seems the eighth grade was the ultimate in education for most in that day. It was last year that our sister school in the Jordan District celebrated its fiftieth year cf high school, and I have found . evidence that the first graduation class in Bingham High dated back I to 1912, so probably 1962 would i be our Golden Jubilee year. No one seems to remember when I the old Central school was built. It stood in the center of the lot where the Civic Center stands. The building build-ing was stone and brick and had a little cupola on top with a bell. This was the school I first attended in 1912. To the aouth of old Central was the high school building and while I was going to school they began the gymnasium building to the north, with class rooms on the top floor and a swimming pool in the basement. This building was completed just before the United States entered the first World War |