Oak Grove school to host open house event Sunday, Oct. 4.

This coming Sunday, the Oak Grove School Historical Society will host an informative open house at the historic Oak Grove one-room schoolhouse located in southern Neosho County at 20505 20th Road (just 3-1/2 miles east of the intersection of Queens and 20th Road). The hours will be from 1-5 p.m. Come learn about the special Kansas history field trip program planned for area elementary school-aged children, targeted to begin in the Fall of 2027!

So why Oak Grove? No, the school is not a large military fort, nor the site of an old battlefield. Rather, it is something more significant. Oak Grove stands as a symbol of the mortar of American pioneer courage and independence. Unique among the more than one hundred rural one-room schools that once dotted Neosho County, Oak Grove (District #20) was one of the earliest school districts established in the county and was built directly on the Osage Trail, the route that thousands of migrating settlers followed into Kansas after the Civil War. When you stand in front of the Oak Grove schoolhouse, you stand upon the same route traveled and frequented by these determined pioneers. Due to its unique historic location, Oak Grove has been listed on both the Kansas and National Historic Sites Registers.

This is just one small example of Kansas and Neosho County history to be learned from a visit to Oak Grove. We invite you to learn  more! Come visit us at the open house this coming Sunday! We will have special activities for children, including scavenger hunts to learn about Oak Grove’s unique history - and raffle drawings for free copies of the book “Little House on the Prairie.” So, take a Sunday afternoon ride into the country and “step back in time” at Oak Grove.

To learn more, visit www.historicoakgroveschool.com.