Quay School

 

Quay School was built in 1929 and closed in 1955. Quay County had a lot of schools, back in the homesteading days. It seems like too many, until you consider the size of the place, 2,882 square miles, a good deal bigger than the state of Delaware. If one was to place a 160 acre homestead on every square inch of Quay County, you'd have 11, 528 of them. A lot of farms and a whole lot of kids.
According to local historian Lynn Moncus, Quay County had 86 school districts in 1908. Over the years, there were little schools in Obar, House, McAlister, Norton, Lesbia, Glenrio, Montoya, and Ima, to name a few. There were larger schools in Tucumcari, Logan, Nara Visa, Quay, San Jon, Forrest, and Wheatland.
Eastern New Mexico, a hundred years ago, was booming: crop prices were through the roof (because of the war), and the rain was plentiful. An Albuquerque Newspaper referred to the Quay Valley as "The garden spot of New Mexico."
There was a saying back then, coined by Charles Dana Wilber, "The rain follows the plough," that many people took as gospel. And why wouldn't they? That part of the west, formerly known as The Great American Desert, was blooming like it never had before. It seemed like the good times would go on forever.