Powell High School Alumni Association is celebrating its 100th anniversary this weekend.

“In 1908, Powell’s first school census was taken by Mr. Thos. W. McHoes, enumerating all persons of school age, 6 to 21 years, with a total of 36 students.” That quote, taken from a letter by McHoes, was later printed in the Powell Tribune in 1915, said a 1995 report written by Duane S. Edmonds and Delia R. Heny.

The first school was in the community building at the Reclamation camp in the spring of 1909. It was forced to close at the end of May due to a of lack of space and money. There were 61 students, according to Robert Bonner and Beryl Churchill’s 2008 book, “Powell’s First Century: Home in the Valley.”

In March 1909, Garland closed its school and Powell opened its own, with Marie Haley as the teacher. She lived in Garland and walked to school in Powell every morning during the summer. She often rode the train home, Edmonds and Heny said.

According to Bonner and Churchill:

In the fall of 1909, the school opened for the full nine-month year with a principal and two teachers. Younger students attended at the Reclamation building and older students received their schooling in the basement of the newly completed Union Presbyterian Church.

In 1910, 157 students were enrolled. In 1911, there were 175 students. The first brick schoolhouse was ready in the fall of 1912.

That same fall, the first school wagons embarked to deliver children to and from the school, with a north and south route of 10-12 miles each. Wagons were provided, but the drivers drove their own teams of horses. “The (wagons) had heaters in the aisles, which would slide up and down the aisle depending on whether the wagon was going up hill or down hill,” Edmonds and Heny said. 

“Within four years, there were six wagon routes; total school enrollment in 1915 was 498,” said Bonner and Churchill. “Powell High School graduated its first class, six girls and two boys, that year.”

A century later, 98 students graduated in 2015, according to the Tribune.

In 1919, 526 students were enrolled, and buses replaced wagons, said Bonner and Churchill.

In 1921, Powell schools had 16 teachers; seven of those were teaching high school. One year later, there were 39 total teachers, eight of whom taught in the high school.

In 1922, the Powell Tribune noted that two-thirds of the class pursued some form of higher education, including W. Edwards Deming, who earned a doctorate in physics from Yale University.

“The 1923 high school enrollment of 204 made Powell the largest high school in the Big Horn Basin, eighth in the state,” said Bonner and Churchill.

The school district issued bonds to build a high school in 1919. But, after construction started in the spring of 1920, the bonds failed. With close to 200 students expected in high school that fall, the district issued more bonds. In August, the high school of 2½ stories, with a gymnasium and auditorium, was built.

In February 1935, a new school to house both junior and high school students was built.

Another high school was built in 1960. PHS students now attend classes in the third Powell High School building, which opened in 2008.