HOME • HISTORY • BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL OCTOBER 12-14, 2012 • UPCOMING EVENTS • NEWS
We here at Wooley Creek School are dedicated to preserving our Ozarks culture and history and to making the one-room Wooley Creek School a center of the greater Ozarks community again.
Every fall, folks from all over these hills gather for our three-day bluegrass festival. And we’re just getting started. Be sure to bookmark this site and check back often.
Wooley Creek School: Where the past meets the present and it’s all real.
Best regards,
Mike Collins (417) 574-6021
_________________________
THE HISTORY
OF WOOLEY CREEK
On a high Ozarks ridge overlooking the James River (and Table Rock Lake), less than four miles west of Cape Fair, Missouri, the Wooley Creek Community gathered for generations. The center of this community (named for the Wooley Family who settled here from Tennessee in the mid-1800s) was the old, one-room school house.
The exact date the Wooley Creek School was built is unknown. However, the property was deeded over by Anthony Myers in 1903 (it is likely the school stood before then).
Originally a wood-frame structure, Wooley Creek School was “rocked” in local stone in the late 1940s, giving it a distinctive “giraffe rock” appearance, common in the Cape Fair and Reeds Spring area.
Classes were held here until the spring of 1952 when it was consolidated with the Reeds Spring Re-organized School District #44. For over 50 years, the school sat, untouched and largely unused.
In 2005, members of the Wooley Creek community banded together to preserve the structure and open its doors as a center of the community again.
_________________________
THE GOALS OF WOOLEY CREEK SCHOOL
1. To restore and preserve Wooley Creek School, making it clean and safe, so it can once again be used by the community.
2. List the Wooley Creek School on the National Register of Historic Places.
3. Use Wooley Creek School as a living history center so that future generations can learn its history.
“[One-room school restoration in Missouri] is part of a growing movement to bring three new R’s to the remaining one-room schools: research, restoration and remembrance." — Jim McCarty of Rural Missouri, September 2011
_________________________
WOOLEY CREEK HISTORY ON ROOTSWEB:
Dedicated to the memory of Glenda Chamberlin, this nested Rootsweb site includes detailed history of the Wooley Family, student and teacher records, and the 2005-to-present restoration process:
www.rootsweb/ancestry.com/
_________________________
FRIENDS OF WOOLEY CREEK:
Having friends is a wonderful thing. Here are a few of ours:
The Cleverly’s
www.thecleverlys.com
The Petersen Family
www.petersenfamilyband.com
Brightwater Junction
www.brighwaterjunction.com
Missouri Boatride
www.missouriboatride.com
Ozarks Country School Association
www.extension.missouri.edu/greene
Rural Missouri
www.ruralmissouri.org
State of the Ozarks Online Magazine
www.stateoftheozarks.net
Brightwater Junction
www.brighwaterjunction.com
_________________________
Preservation of one-room schools are a critical part of our Ozarks culture. To that end we are charter members of the Ozarks Country School Association.
Mary Ann Broomfield, Vada Wilson, Mike Collins and Joshua Heston were honored to co-present at the First Annual Ozarks Country School Association Historic School Summit on Saturday, September 17, 2011.
The summit took place at the Springfield-Green County Botanical Center, 2400 S. Scenic Avenue, Springfield, Missouri, inside Nathanael Greene and Close Parks (and the same park that also houses the Gray-Campbell Farmstead).
The Ozarks Country School Association is a community development effort under the direction of University of Missouri Extension and is coordinated out of the Missouri University Extension office in Greene County, Springfield. The mission of the OCSA is to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of the one-room school experience in the Ozarks.
Be sure to visit their website here:
Ozarks Country School Association
Bluegrass Festival is always the second weekend of October. Auction is scheduled for Friday, October 12, at 6:30PM. Free primitive camping for RVs / Travel Trailers / tents. For more information, call (417) 272-0793.
Current groups scheduled include: YouTube sensation The Cleverly’s, The Petersen Family Band and Missouri Boatride.
Host band Missouri Boatride continues to gather fans throughout Southwest Missouri. From left, Dean Webb (mandolin), Larry Sifford (bass), Justin Sifford (guitar), Dennis Pritchard (fiddle) and Bob Gideon (banjo).
Justin Sifford of Missouri Boatride is both emcee and festival coordinator.
WOOLEY CREEK BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL • OCTOBER 12, 13 & 14, 2012
Our goal is to preserve traditional Ozarks music. Old-time acoustic music — singings every weekend — was a crucial part of our school’s history. To that end, we have founded the Wooley Creek Bluegrass Festival, held the second weekend of October.
2012 SCHEDULE & INFORMATION:
ADMISSION: $10 for the WEEKEND
Sunday is free.
No pets are allowed at the festival.
GROUPS CURRENTLY SCHEDULED:
CEDAR HILL of ROGERS, ARKANSAS
The PETERSEN FAMILY of BRANSON
Host band MISSOURI BOATRIDE
and YouTube bluegrass sensation, THE CLEVERLY’S!
Proceeds to go restoration of Historic Wooley Creek School.
No pets are allowed at the festival.
Our first festival was in 2005 and we have grown steadily since then. We hope you will make plans to join us this fall, October 12-14.
_________________________
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Mike Collins, treasurer
(417) 574-6021
Mike@WooleyCreekBluegrassFestival.org
Mary Ann Broomfield, committee historian
(417) 538-2329
MBroomfield@centurytel.net
Shelley Jones, for contributions or band sponsorship
Shelley362@yahoo.com
Justin Sifford, music coordinator
(417) 272-0793
Captain.Sifford@gmail.com
Joshua Heston, webmaster:
(417) 335-1371
Josh@StateoftheOzarks.net
_________
UPCOMING EVENTS & NEWS AT THE SCHOOL
Our goal is to make Wooley Creek School a part of the community once again.We have recently partnered with a number of folks and will soon be offering day-long workshops on topics such as digital photography, writing, and even Ozarks music!
Earlier this year, Wooley Creek partnered with online Ozarks magazine, StateoftheOzarks.
The history of the School was even featured as a signature article, which may be read here:
Wooley Creek School article on StateoftheOzarks
State of the Ozarks is proud to be working with the Wooley Creek School Association. Be sure to look for the StateoftheOzarks tent during the upcoming bluegrass festival.
VADA WILSON, FORMER STUDENT at the one-room Wooley Creek School shares a few of her fond memories from that experience.
Her comments were part of the MU Extension organized 2011 Historic School Summit in Springfield. Many thanks to David Burton for this video:
Rural Missouri, the statewide publication of the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, recently featured our school and bluegrass festival in their article, “Back to the One-Room School” by Jim McCarty.
Check it out here:
www.RuralMissouri.org
_________________________
WOOLEY CREEK BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL NOW ON FACEBOOKHead on over and LIKE us today.
_________________________
The crowd gathers to watch Mississippi Sawyers perform.
The giraffe-stone Wooley Creek School opens during the festival so those interested can experience its history. Many former students take the time to reconnect with their childhood memories.
DIRECTIONS TO WOOLEY CREEK:
FROM BRANSON WEST: North on Highway 13 to Highway 76 (Reeds Spring). Follow Highway 76 west through Cape Fair. Continue on Highway 76 3.5 miles west of Cape Fair, turning left (south) on Wooley Creek Road.
View Larger Map
StateoftheOzarks Design • www.StateoftheOzarks.net/Design