In 1868, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors received a petition to establish a school district south of Yreka. The May 5 board minutes stated, “In the matter of application of Perry Cram and others for establishing a new school district, Petition granted.” The board named G.K. Godfrey as superintendent.
The Orr and Julien families built the brick building and the school took its name, Vineland, from the profusion of grapevines growing there.
Students came from the Cram and Guy Gulch areas, including all of the Orr and Julien children. When attendance dropped, the board suspended classes, but the school reopened in 1921. In August 1927 the board voted to permanently shut it down. The few remaining students transferred to the Grenada Elementary School.
The Orr family took over the schoolhouse building, and in the 1930’s Mrs. Sarah Orr built an addition at the back of the building for the ranch manager’s living quarters. It was later used as a home for the George Silva family and the Phil Gossner family.
Today the old abandoned brick schoolhouse stands as a familiar landmark along Highway 99.
Source: Broderick, Frieda. "Vineland School." The Siskiyou Pioneer and Yearbook 3.No 7 (1964): 20. Print.
