“Clara Graham, who was the daughter of Samuel Barkley, moved with her family from Trail, crossing the Columbia River in a small rowboat and staying overnight at Bauer’s stopping place at Sayward [now Columbia Gardens], the station on the Nelson & Fort Sheppard branch of the Great Northern Railway nearest to Trail, and arriving the next day at Meadow Spur in December 1900. The Barkley ranch was approximately one and a half miles east of Ross Spur and eight miles from Salmo. To attend school at first, the Barkley sisters walked into Salmo on the railway tracks on Sunday and boarded in the Pink house and walked back on Friday, picking up the mail at Erie on their way home. Their dog Shep was their guardian.”
A small log school was built on the old Salmo wagon road east of Barkley’s ranch some time before 1908. The exact location causes some controversy today. The land for the second school was purchased in March 1918. It was situated on the upper side of the old Salmo wagon road. The school probably started in the fall of 1918 and ran until June 1941.
Graham Clara, Kootenay Yesterdays
