Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Soroco middle and high school students and their teachers celebrated the historical significance of their community Wednesday night.

Seventh- and ninth-grade English classes presented their findings of South Routt history to parents, teachers and other community members at the middle school auditorium.

Every year, Brenda Little's seventh-grade class at Soroco Middle School studies local historical buildings and shares its research with an oral presentation.

The audience grades the presentation.

The students' project highlighted historical buildings in Oak Creek and Yampa.

Historical structures in Yampa included The Antlers restaurant, the Royal Hotel and the Yampa Bible Church.

Some of the historical structures in Oak Creek included Bonfiglio Drug, the Oak Creek Inn, the building that now houses Pisa's and the building that now houses Big Tuna's.

The project wraps up a year of place-based learning for the students, said Amy Pankonin, place-based education coordinator for the South Routt and Hayden school districts.

The study of historical buildings carried some weight with students, she said, because the children live near the subject of their studies.

"The kids study place so it's meaningful," Pankonin said. "It's bringing history alive."

An addition to the seventh-grade presentation arrived this year with a presentation by the freshmen at Soroco High School.

Val Broadbent's English students researched what was formerly Oak Creek Union High School.

They talked to former students, collected stories of its history and looked for old photographs.

Today, the building, built in 1924, is known as Soroco Middle School.

The students' research helped to mark Wednesday's dedication of Soroco Middle School as a historical landmark.

The building was recently placed on the Routt County Register of Historic Places.

"It was renovated to reinstate its original structure," Pankonin said.

The event coincided with Colorado Archaeology and Historic Preservation Month. The Colorado Archaeology Society awarded a small grant to the district to cover the costs of holding the event.

The students might share their findings again during Oak Creek's Labor Day celebration, Pankonin said.

"It's really impressive to hear the kids' presentations," she said. "I think they learned a lot."