Fairfield Schoolhouse — Today's schoolchildren can visit the past

FAIRFIELD — Imagine stepping back in time and going to school in the early 19th century in a one-room schoolhouse on the frontier.

Modern-day schoolchildren can do that now as the 1898 Fairfield Schoolhouse opens for daylong visits.

The school has already been available for short visits included in tours of the Camp Floyd/Stagecoach Inn State Park but will officially expand after the April 16 open house event.

The restored Victorian building, which marks the center of town for the tiny community of Fairfield in the Cedar Valley, has new restrooms, indoor plumbing, new paint and drapes. Replicas of the original ironwork-and-wood desks sit waiting for students who will work on chalk slates, write with quill pens and read from the McGuffey primers.

The bell that called students to class in the 1920s rings again.

"We see this as a living-history school," said Park Manager Mark Trotter. "It's already popular. You can't get in now except maybe in June. This spring's pretty full, and it's just been by word-of-mouth. It's great. It is."

Students in the elementary grades from all over the state are invited, but the curriculum lends itself best to those studying Utah history in the fourth grade.

It costs $50 a day to rent the school from approximately 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Those school groups who make the trip will follow the daily schedule as it was in 1890.

Once the teacher rings the bell, boys are to line up on one side of the walk and girls on the other. The boys bow and the girls curtsey before they march in.

Inside, they are to stand up to speak, enunciate their words and put their hands together in front of their chest to encourage proper breathing from the diaphragm.

They'll study arithmetic, reading and writing, using their slates to work out a problem or to practice their letters.

At recess, the children will learn to play "rounders" and "hoops and sticks" as well as marbles and jacks.

Their teachers will dress in costuming provided: long gingham dresses for the women; suspenders, muslin shirts, pants and boots for the men.

Trotter will make a visit to the class wearing the captain's uniform that resembles one worn by officers in Johnston's Army, which saw 3,500 troops move into the Cedar Valley area in 1861 to keep peace among the Mormons.