Fairbank School
Cochise County, Arizona
Year Built: 1920
Year Closed: 1944
About the Fairbank School:
The original Fairbank School, a wooden structure, was built in 1884. After being lost due to fire in 1920, a new school was constructed, built of pressed gypsum blocks manufactured by the Arizona Gypsum Block Company in nearby Douglas, Arizona. The new school had one room that could be divided by a partition and a side room was added sometime in the 1930s. Up to 45 students, some of whom rode their horses to school, attended grades 1 through 8, with one (and sometimes two) teachers teaching the students. A fence enclosed the schoolyard as well as the boys’ and girls’ privies. The school also served as a community center, hosting dances and various other social events. A house across the street served as a teacherage for the teacher to live in. Once the school closed, in 1944, students were transported by bus to Tombstone and the teacherage continued to be used as a residence, most likely for employees of the Little Boquillas Ranch.
Restoration work on the school began in 2007, using original materials whenever possible. Doors and windows were reconstructed to match the originals and the original hardwood floor was refinished. Blackboards for the restored school came from the Lowell School in Bisbee, Arizona and the desks were brought in from Tombstone.
About the town:
Originally the location of an 18th century Native American village, Santa Cruz, located water the San Pedro and Babocomari Rivers meet, the township that would become Fairbank was first known as Junction City, then Kendall, then Fairbanks before being officially named Fairbank on May 16, 1883. Built on an old Mexican land grant, the San Juan de las Boquillas y Nogales, the town that would become Fairbank got its start as a town with the building of the New Mexico and Arizona Railroad in 1881. The town got its name from N.K. Fairbank, of Chicago, an individual who helped finance the railroad. It wasn’t long before it became an important depot, serving as a waypoint for the railroad and it would be the closest stop to the town of Tombstone. Practically everything going to and leaving from Tombstone was processed through Fairbank, including ore from the silver mines that was to be processed through three mills that were located approximately 10 miles north of Fairbank. By the 1890s, the town of Fairbank had grown steadily and was serviced by, not only the original New Mexico and Arizona Railroad, but also by the Arizona and Southeastern Railroad, the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad, and the Southern Pacific Railroad. A true railroad town, the operation of the railroads were consolidated by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1924.
On February 21, 1900, the express car of a Benson to Nogales train was held up by six gunmen when it arrived in Fairbank. While mingling with the crowd gathered at the station and pretending to be drunken cowboys, the gunmen, including Billy Stiles and Burt Alford who had both been deputy sheriffs before joining with four outlaws, attacked the baggage car. Inside the car, guarding the Wells Fargo box and its payroll was lawman Jeff D. Milton. Hit by gunfire, Mr. Milton threw the key to the Wells Fargo box into a corner so the outlaws would be unable to access the box. After firing numerous bullets into the car, the robbers opened the rail car door and, unable to find the keys, gave up on the robbery attempt, mounted their horses and rode away. The robbers were hunted down and imprisoned, all except for one who had fled to Mexico. At the time, the penalty for train robbery was hanging; however, since this was only an attempted robbery, leniency was given and the outlaws were given lesser sentences with the exception of Jeff Dunlap (aka Three-Fingered Jack), a well known horse thief, who died the day after the attempted robbery from buckshot wounds to his chest.
In its heyday, Fairbank was home to stage coach lines, a telegraph station, Wells Fargo shipping, restaurants, saloons and a hotel. The town survived floods, an earthquake and the eviction of all potential land owners by the Boquillas Land and Cattle Company when they purchased the land. They continued to lease the mercantile building and a few residences well into the 1970s. The Bureau of Land Management acquired the former Mexican Land Grant land in 1986 as part of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area and the area is once again open for the public to enjoy.
