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Show 660 REPORTS OF SUPERINTENDENTS OF SCHOOLS. REPORT OF SCHOOL AT FORT LEWIS. COLO. FORT LEWIS INDIAN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, Fmt Leuris, Gob., September I , 1892. SIR: In compliance with instructions from your office, I have the honor to submit the following as the first annual report of the Fort Lewis Indian indue trial sohool : School openad.-I arrived here on the 17th of Maroh last, and opened school vith 5 Navajo children, which I brought with me from the Navajo school. We found the p l m in a somewhat dilapidated condition, but soon began to get itin shapefor the reception of more pupils. On April 23 Supervisor Keck arrivedat the school with 16 children from the Southern Ute Reservation. Our number has since beenincreased by tho addition of 4 Navajoes and 26 Mescalero Apaches, the lattar being brought by Supervisor Keck from the Mescalero school. This gives us an enrollment of 51,and we hope tovery largdly increase thisnumber at an early date. Site.-Fort Lewis is laid off on the militacy plan. A large rectangular plaza 2,MlO by 500 feet, surrounded on all sides, and crossed in two places by double rows of cottonwood trees, with a drive or walk between and a stream of water flowing by each row, forms the center of the ground. Around this center are arranged the principal buildings. In front of them and surrounding the plaza is a plank walk almost a mile in length. On the west are ten double residences with from ten to fourteenrooms each, built for office?' quarters. On the oppo-site side are the company barracks, which via llttle repairs and changes afford rooms for dormitories kitchen and dining room, sohoolrooms, play rooms, drilling rooms, etc. At the kidale of this row of buildings, a little back and at the end of a short shaded avenue, is a two-story buildine of eight rooms, sur-rounded entirely by a wide veranda. This was built for the offices of the mili-tary officials and wlll be fitted up by the schoolforreading rooms and apartments where quiet games, such'as checkers, authors, eto., can be enjoyed. Marbles and more boisterous games can be indulged in near by in a room 80 feet long with a porch 80 by 10 feet in front. Another one of these barracks has been fitted up for a boys' dormitory. It. contains twenty-seven small apartments and sixlarger ones, allon one floor. I doubt if there isa better dormitory in the sery-ice. At the upper end of the grounds are the superintendent's office, a large com-missary, aod a, stone guard house, a neablooking building with a porch on two sides. At the lower endof the plaza are the two hospital buildings and twonest cottages. These buildings are very suitable for girls' department, and I hops to use them for this purpose when we havea sufficient number of girls tooccupy them. One of the hospital buildings is frame, the other brick. The frame building issurrounded by a veranda above and below, the two aggregating 560 feet in length. The brick building is the best on thegrounds. It hasaveranas. 10 feet wide on three sides. There are also on the premises four large storehouses, each about 100 feet in length. The buildings are sufficient, with a comparatively small outlay, in the way of repairs and modifications, to easily accommodate 500 pupils. Character of corn@.-The surrounding country, which belongs to the Fort Lewis military reservation, affords splendid pasture, whlle the soil on the school farm is well adapted to the production of bay and oats. There are at the fort an ahund-an= of barns and hay sheds to shelter a large number of cattle and store feed for them. Thus the 8ohool's facilities for stock-raising ape all that could be asked for. We will have 4 miles of pasture fence coustructed withinashort time, and if we do not get authority to buy quite a large herd of cattle next spring it will not be because we do not ask for it. Cattle-raising can certainly be carried on successfully and profitably here. With the rich, mellow soil and plentiful supply of water, the various kinds of vegetables needed by the school can be raised in abundance, and for storing them we have a stone storehouse with a basement story 30 by 100 feet, where a very large quantity can be put away safe from frost. bestia~-The location of the school is high and dry, with pure water and cool summers. The average fall or declivity of the grounds is almoat 2 feet to the hundred, giving us splendid drainage. The buildings are large and airy, so there is no need of crowding; they are so numerous that cases of contagious sickness can he easily isolated. A large 14room house has been fitted u for e hospital, so that the sick can ha well cared for. What more couldweas%for in the way of good sanitary conditions? |
