Chalk Grade Flats

  Chalk Grade Flats is so named because Chalk Grade which ran from the river up to Rice, (the next stop on this tour), cuts through glacial clay that is a very light color.  The flat runs from Mile Marker 70 on the north to Pleasant Valley Rd and Qillisascut Creek on the south. Just north of the flat, The Splitoff a large Gibraltar-like rock, just out from the surrounding hills.  It is fertile ground with extensive sub irrigation.  At the north end of the flat sits Daniel's Nursery.  Just north of Daniel's fence is this box Elder Tree.  Walter's School, a grade school with 8 grades in one room.  The well still remains with a cover.  South of the school where the nursery is now was once Hayden's peach orchard which was protected from hungry children by Hayden's black spaniel named "Sig".
   Dave Wilson, once a student there, remembers that unruly children would put the teeth out of a plastic comb on the stove and create an awful smell.  Once one put a half-empty ink bottle on the stove with a cork in it.  When it heated enough to blow the cork, it left a 4 foot splatter on the ceiling.  In 1931 the Walter's School was merged into the Rice School, with two rooms and children were bused in from Pleasant Valley.  The new school teacher, Mr Andrews, carried a long wooden paddle and much more attention was paid to studies.