Schoolhouses of Minnesota (Minnesota Byways)

On the flat windy prairie,

The only thing not moving

Was a small red schoolhouse.

So opens Schoolhouses of Minnesota, a magical foray into the nearly forgotten world of one-acre school grounds, kerosene lanterns, coal-burning stoves, and old desks that eventually had sixty years’ worth of initials scraped into them. In the fourth book in his popular Minnesota Byways series, photographer Doug Ohman once again treats readers to the fruits of his state travels —including a trip to Minnesota’s last remaining one-room schoolhouse in Angle Inlet—with 120 color photographs that illuminate the simple, often abandoned, sometimes refurbished, and nearly vanishing Minnesota pioneer and early schoolhouses.

Bridging the past with the present, critically acclaimed writer Jim Heynen complements Ohman’s images with twenty-five beautifully crafted tales on the evolution of lunch pails, the consolidation of rural schools, profiles of bullies and teachers’ pets, and the timeless wish of schoolchildren of all generations—school closing on “snow days”! Heynen, who learned to read and write in a one-room schoolhouse, uses his trademark wit and down-to-earth style to bring back memories of the early days of Minnesota education, taught by hundreds of rural teachers across the state to thousands of farm and town kids alike.