Wabek School Listed In ND State Historic Sites Registry
A consolidated school has been listed in the North Dakota State Historic Sites Registry by the North Dakota Historical Board. Nominations are coordinated by the Archaeology and Historic Preservation Department of the State Historical Society of North Dakota.
Wabek Consolidated School is located about four miles south of Plaza in Mountrail County on Outlot 2 in the southeast quarter of Section 2, Township 152 North Range 88 West. It was established in 1917 when two one-room schoolhouses were moved together and physically connected. This consolidation accommodated more students and expanded educational opportunities by bringing in a second teacher. In the 1930s, this school served over 100 students, offered high school courses, and had a grass ballfield and its own baseball team.
Being a large building with two acres of land, the school also hosted many social events, including a speech by Governor Lynn Frazier in 1920. Frazier traveled by airplane, the first flight of a governor during a political campaign in the U.S. according to news articles at the time. Today, this physically consolidated school is one of a few remaining in the state.
The State Historic Sites Registry’s documentation process for listing demonstrates that the resource is significant in some aspect of the state’s history. Listing in the State Registry does not prevent owners from altering their property, restrict the use or sale of the property, or establish times requiring that the property must be open to the public. Entry into the State Historic Sites Registry does give a property prestige and requires the state and political subdivisions to cooperate with the director of the State Historical Society of North Dakota in safeguarding these sites.