Cataract Schoolhouse

05/03/2026

Monday is the first day of field trips for the kids from Spencer Elementary School and Gosport. The Owen County Civic Theater has volunteers coming wearing period costumes to interact with the kids. WTWO -Terre Haute is sending a reporter out. The hours are from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. It would be nice if after 2:00 anyone from Cataract is welcome to meet the volunteers and see what the program is all about. Thanks, Michelle

04/25/2026

Cataract Schoolhouse is set to welcome Spencer Elementary students and Gosport Elementary School and hoping to also schedule Patricksburg Elementary for an interactive Field trip. The 4th through the 7th of May. Also participating is the Owen County Civic Theater group who will help make this a great experience. This has been made possible by a grant from the Owen County Community Foundation. During this week we would ask the community to be mindful of students at the school and be careful driving during school hours.

11/03/2025

11/03/2025

On Thursday October 30, the Cataract Schoolhouse bell rang out for class to begin. The last time it rang for students was 1947. Okay, that was 78 years ago. As the bell rang 51 children arrived from McCormick's Creek Elementary School and we welcomed three 3rd grade classes to attend school. Over a year ago the Owen County Community Foundation gave the Cataract School a grant to develop a field trip program for Owen County students. Since that time, we have made modifications to the school, purchased desks, published our own readers, obtain supplies, did research a made over the school to make it student friendly. Wendy Moler is the administrator of this pilot program and has spent countless hours on research and preparation. Several months ago, we put together a program and made a presentation to the Owen County Elementary School Corporation. They made a commitment for all Owen County Elementary 3rd Grade classes to schedule a field trip to our one room schoolhouse in the 2025-26 school year. Our opening schools had to be rescheduled due to a Medical Emergency and McCormick's Creek became our first school. We had a lot of help from a lot of people to make this happen. Nathan Mader opened up the Cataract Volunteer Fire Department and put on a great health and safety class to the students. They allowed us to use the building for our activity's session. Beth Bougher was able to step in as our teacher and her daughter Madeline Nay led the activities class. Jessieca Turnbull from the Owen County Civic Theatre helped out with volunteers. And we are working on a plan to provide reenactors for future projects. We were blessed to have Don Meek be our celebrity guest and he interacted with both classes and answered questions from the students about going to a one room school. The Owen County Chamber of Commerce and Sweet Owen Tourism also pitched in to help. Our three McCormick's Creek teachers, Madeline Mobley, Fred Walden and Kenzi Brown were terrific with the kids

I'm enclosing some of the pictures of the day's activities and would love your feedback. Do you know the span in time for the school began in 1848 with the original school and the newer school in 1886 and now 2025. 177 years... WOW

09/19/2025

We are pleased to announce that the Cataract Schoolhouse is set to open its doors for third graders from all of the Owen County Elementary Schools beginning in October. Last year we were given a $5,000.00 grant from the Owen County Community Foundation to develop a pilot program for field trips. The children will be hosted at the school for a day of education as it was in 1935. We have done research and preparation all summer for this event and presented our program to the school principals and I believe they were pleased with what we have done to date. History and the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic has been the foundation of the great
American one room schoolhouse for over a hundred years. We are planning to open this up for all Owen County Schools as well as different grade levels and types of schools in this area and surrounding schools. We are shorthanded though and need help both financially and in making the school everything it can be. Carpentry projects, landscaping and help for final preparation. This is a community venture and one that we can all be proud to support. Wendy Moler is our School Marm and has put countless hours in on this project. Many thanks to her.

06/23/2025

06/23/2025

They’re going to be HERE!!!🤗🤗🤗

Introducing our Arena Director for The Gathering of the People Pow Wow 2025 at Cataract, Indiana.

Leroy Malaterre, Sagamore award recipient and long time Indiana resident, was born and raised on Turtle Mountain Reservation. After Vietnam, he moved to Indianapolis and started his career at Allison Transmission. Leroy is the founder of the American Indian Council Inc. where he resides as Chairman Emeritus. He has been responsible for having a helping hand in many powwows across the Midwest serving as a master of ceremonies for 40+ years. Leroy is currently enjoying his retirement by staying busy in his workshop making feather boxes, and spending time with his grand and great grandkids.

He is also a veteran who served 15 years in the US Army. Thank you for your service Leroy!

02/22/2025

Please help support us: SHARE with your Family & Friends!

Please help us and support the Old Cataract Schoolhouse by donating at:
bit.ly/oldcataractschoolhouse

With ONLY "1" WEEK left to match, Old Cataract Schoolhouse jumped on the train!

The Owen County Community Foundation is matching donations now through the END of February.

Next week will be the last week that donations to the Old Cataract Schoolhouse are matched $1 for $1 by the Owen County Community Foundation. So every little bit helps. Please help us and support the Old Cataract Schoolhouse by donating at:
bit.ly/oldcataractschoolhouse or mail your donation to the Owen County Community Foundation at P.O. Box 503, Spencer, IN 47460 and add the Old Cataract Schoolhouse to the check memo.

02/20/2025

Please help us and support the Old Cataract Schoolhouse by donating at:
bit.ly/oldcataractschoolhouse

With ONLY "1" WEEK left to match, Old Cataract Schoolhouse jumped on the train!

The Owen County Community Foundation is matching donations now through the END of February.

Next week will be the last week that donations to the Old Cataract Schoolhouse are matched $1 for $1 by the Owen County Community Foundation. So every little bit helps. Please help us and support the Old Cataract Schoolhouse by donating at:
bit.ly/oldcataractschoolhouse or mail your donation to the Owen County Community Foundation at P.O. Box 503, Spencer, IN 47460 and add the Old Cataract Schoolhouse to the check memo.

02/20/2025

The Owen County Community Foundation is matching donations now through the END of February.

With ONLY "1" WEEK left to match, Old Cataract Schoolhouse jumped on the train!

So next week will be the last week that donations to the Old Cataract Schoolhouse are matched $1 for $1 by the Owen County Community Foundation.

Every little bit helps!
Please help us and support the Old Cataract Schoolhouse by donating at:
bit.ly/oldcataractschoolhouse

or mail your donation to the Owen County Community Foundation at P.O. Box 503, Spencer, IN 47460 and add the “Old Cataract Schoolhouse” to the check memo.

Thank you for your support!

12/23/2024

Merry Christmas to everyone who visited the Schoolhouse this year. It was quite a busy year for us. The painting of the schoolhouse inside and out has been a major accomplishment. Its 99.9 percent finished. We also had a great start on our landscaping project. Thanks again for the OCCB contribution to the project as well as the Sweet Owen Tourism donation. We are hard at work on our project to provide Field Trips to Owen County Schools and other schools in our area. Also had a major contribution from OCCB on that project.

Unfortunately, this is our first ever year without decorating the school for the holidays in a decade. I'm really sad about that as I think it lit up the Community.

Time to thank everyone who helped us this year and we hope everyone has a joyous New Year.