The Little Outfit Schoolhouse

	The Little Outfit Schoolhouse
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	The Little Outfit Schoolhouse, sometime before its restoration in the mid-2000s.
	Location in the state of Arizona The Little Outfit Schoolhouse (the US)
Nearest city	Patagonia, Arizona
Coordinates	31°29′42.75″N110°34′25.12″W / 31.4952083°N 110.5736444°W Coordinates: 31°29′42.75″N110°34′25.12″W / 31.4952083°N 110.5736444°W
Area	less than one acre
Built	1940
Architect	Hutchinson, Katharine Warfield; Dustman, Otto
Architectural style	one-room schoolhouse
NRHP reference #	08001275 [1]
Added to NRHP	January 8, 2009

Last updated February 27, 2019

The Little Outfit Schoolhouse is a ranch school that was built in 1940 in southeastern Arizona. It is located on the Little Outfit Ranch in San Rafael Valley, about ten miles east-southeast of Patagonia, in Santa Cruz County, which borders Mexico on the south and is about 80 miles from Arizona's eastern border with New Mexico.

A ranch school is a type of school used in rural areas of the Western United States.

Arizona is a state in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the Western and the Mountain states. It is the sixth largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona shares the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico; its other neighboring states are Nevada and California to the west and the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California to the south and southwest.

The San Rafael Valley is a high intermontane grass valley in eastern Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The valley is bounded to the west by the Patagonia Mountains, to the north and northeast by the Canelo Hills and to the east by the Huachuca Mountains in Cochise County. The valley forms the headwaters of the Santa Cruz River which flows south into Sonora, Mexico just east of the historic Lochiel townsite.

In the early and mid-twentieth century ranch schools became an important part of the educational system in many western states and Arizona led the nation in total number. The concept set high academic standards but also put strong emphasis on the ideals of the American Old West, rugged outdoor activities, and independence of spirit. The Little Outfit Ranch School provides an excellent example this approach to education and in 2009 the schoolhouse itself was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[2] The schoolhouse is managed by the Little Outfit Preservation Group, Inc.

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

History

The land the schoolhouse is on was homesteaded by Harry Fryer in 1917 and in 1940 it was bought by Buel and Katharine Hutchinson who named it The Little Outfit Ranch. They built a one-room schoolhouse and later that same year opened The Little Outfit Ranch School. The school was coed the first two years but later was all boys, usually had 20 to 25 students and covered grades 3 to 8. Academics were strong but there was a great emphasis on the ways of the West and every student was assigned a horse.

A homestead is a dwelling, especially a farmhouse, and adjacent outbuildings, typically on a large agricultural holding such as a ranch or station.

The Surrounding Territory

The San Rafael Valley is still very sparsely populated, the rich grasslands being used primarily as range for cattle. The nearest house even now seventy years later is still over a mile away, and in the 1940s the nearest telephone was a ten miles ride. The elevation is 5,100 feet with the mountain called Old Hutch, on the north side of the ranch, rising to nearly 6,000 feet. The entrance road to the ranch is off FR 799, Canelo Pass Road—a long, dusty, red dirt road that leads to the small town of Patagonia.

The Founders

The people who founded the Little Outfit Ranch School, Katharine ("Kit") and Buel Hutchinson, moved from Chicago with their three children; Ann, Mary and Ned in 1940. Adventure was surely part of their motive for moving to such a remote area, but the move would also solve a health problem Ned had – a persistent cough that had only disappeared when he stayed several weeks on the 76 Ranch near Willcox, Arizona.

Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States. As of the 2017 census-estimate, it has a population of 2,716,450, which makes it the most populous city in the Midwestern United States. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the United States, and the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, which is often referred to as "Chicagoland." The Chicago metropolitan area, at nearly 10 million people, is the third-largest in the United States, the fourth largest in North America, and the third largest metropolitan area in the world by land area.

Willcox is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 3,757.

Kit Hutchinson was the boss of the ranch, the school's head mistress, and a surrogate mother to the boys. She could ride with the best of them and often organized cross country treasure hunts on horseback. She taught English to the older boys and she was quick to seize opportunities for exciting learning like Tucson rodeos, Christmastime trips deep into Mexico, and witnessing the mustering out of the last of the Army's Indian Scouts at Fort Huachuca. She was amazingly clever at writing plays for the boys to perform on the stage behind the schoolhouse, much to the delight of the neighboring ranchers. She was also quick in making up songs about life at the Little Outfit, wonderful at organizing elaborate graduation ceremonies, and all the while keeping parents well informed on how their boys were doing.

Fort Huachuca is a United States Army installation, established 3 March 1877 as Camp Huachuca. The garrison is now under the command of the United States Army Installation Management Command. It is located in Cochise County, in southeast Arizona, about 15 miles (24 km) north of the border with Mexico and at the northern end of the Huachuca Mountains, next to the town of Sierra Vista. From 1913 to 1933 the fort was the base for the "Buffalo Soldiers" of the 10th Cavalry Regiment. During the buildup of World War II, the fort had quarters for more than 25,000 male soldiers and hundreds of WACs. In the 2010 census, Fort Huachuca had a population of about 6,500 active duty soldiers, 7,400 military family members and 5,000 civilian employees. Fort Huachuca has over 18,000 people on post during the peak working hours of 0700 and 1600 on week days, making it one of the busiest Army installations.

The cover of a brochure published in 1943.

Students raising the flag.

Buel Hutchinson moved permanently to the ranch in 1942. He had been the sales manager for the Warfield Spice Company that Kit's father owned. On the ranch he maintained the various appliances and machines, the electric generation plant, the milk house supplies and so on. He was a natural with the boys and an excellent teacher – both academically and athletically (Buel held the record for the longest touchdown run in football for the University of Chicago).

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. The university is composed of an undergraduate college, various graduate programs and interdisciplinary committees organized into five academic research divisions and seven professional schools. Beyond the arts and sciences, Chicago is also well known for its professional schools, which include the Pritzker School of Medicine, the Booth School of Business, the Law School, the School of Social Service Administration, the Harris School of Public Policy Studies, the Divinity School and the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies. The university holds top-ten positions in various national and international rankings.

How Students Were Recruited

Publicity that would attract students depended mostly on word of mouth but brochures promoting the school were also used. An article in Arizona Highways described a number of ranch schools in operation by 1940, their appeal, and their significant benefit to Arizona.^[3] The Tucson Chamber of Commerce put out a brochure touting the thirteen ranch schools surrounding Tucson including the Little Outfit School. The Chicago area produced many students thanks to the Hutchinson's having lived there before purchasing the Little Outfit Ranch. The Chicago Tribune published a full-page article on the “Schoolboy Cowboys” with many pictures featuring the local Chicago boys attending the Little Outfit School.^[4]

The Ranch School Concept

The concept of ranch schooling had an especially high appeal for the parents of students suffering from various health conditions, primarily asthma. A better climate, many believed, might assist in the recuperation of sickly youths. The parents hoped that the clean, warm air combined with the physical activities that the ranch school offered in addition to the academic work, would aid their children's physical rejuvenation. Instructions in the ideals of the cowboys – independence, honesty, and a willingness to work hard added to the ranch school's allure. Arizona soon led the nation in the number of ranch schools.

School Closure

The closure of the Little Outfit School – As a small, private institution, the Little Outfit School was completely dependent on a high level of effort by its owners, the Hutchinson's. Doubtless an important consideration in their continuing was the completion of their own children's education which was accomplished in the late 1940s. The resignation of Slim Mayo – the school's wrangler—in 1947 left the school without one of its most important teachers. While formal grade school education stopped in 1950, the schoolhouse continued as an educational institution for many years thereafter, functioning as the center of an active summer camp.

Because it is a fine example of the ranch school education which was so important in Arizona in the early years of the twentieth century, The Little Outfit Schoolhouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 8, 2009.^[2] The schoolhouse is managed by the Little Outfit Preservation Group, Inc.

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References

↑ National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
1 2 W. D. Leggett, Little Outfit Schoolhouse, National Register of Historic Places Nomination, Arizona State Historic Preservation Office, January 8, 2009.
↑ Arizona Highways, Arizona Ranch Schools, Volume 15, Number 9, September 1939
↑ The Sunday Chicago Tribune, Page 6, Schoolboy Cowboys, April 30, 1944.

External links

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[nris-1] National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.

[NRHP-2] 1 2 W. D. Leggett, Little Outfit Schoolhouse, National Register of Historic Places Nomination, Arizona State Historic Preservation Office, January 8, 2009.

[3] Arizona Highways, Arizona Ranch Schools, Volume 15, Number 9, September 1939

[Tribune-4] The Sunday Chicago Tribune, Page 6, Schoolboy Cowboys, April 30, 1944.