The Intermountain Indian School (1949–1984) was an Indian boarding school

Americanization (of Native Americans)

The Americanization of Native Americans was an assimilation effort by the United States to transform Native American culture to European-American culture between the years of 1790–1920. George Washington and Henry Knox were first to propose, in an American context, the cultural transformation of...

 in Brigham City, Utah

Brigham City, Utah

Brigham City is a city in Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The population was 17,899 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Box Elder County. It lies on the western slope of the Wellsville Mountains, a branch of the Wasatch Range at the western terminus of Box Elder Canyon...

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History

The Intermountain Indian School, which is in Brigham City, Utah

Brigham City, Utah

Brigham City is a city in Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The population was 17,899 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Box Elder County. It lies on the western slope of the Wellsville Mountains, a branch of the Wasatch Range at the western terminus of Box Elder Canyon...

, was originally the Bushnell Army Hospital, which was open from 1942 to 1947 serving wounded soldiers of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The land was donated by the city to the Federal government

Federal government of the United States

The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...

 so Brigham could get the hospital. Doctors, nurses, military personnel, wounded patients and their families arrived in Brigham City to work at Bushnell. After the hospital's closure, the buildings sat empty for a short period while the city decided what should be done with the land.

In 1948, Brigham City got a proposal for an Indian school. The estimate for remodeling, new construction and equipment was $3.75 million. President Harry Truman signed the bill allocating the money in May 1949. The superintendent and a few assistants began working On June 4, 1948, and by January 1950, 542 students were accepted at the federally run Intermountain Indian School. Since that time, the school was authorized to enroll 2,150 students. It was for Navajo

Navajo people

The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...

 children who were bused from Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

 and were taught from elementary to high school, and it had its own medical facility and printing press.

In 1954, 24 students graduated from the school. In 1955, that number jumped to 188. By 1981, 5,319 students had graduated.

It was successful as a Navajo boarding school. But enrollment was down in the late 70s, so the school was changed to the Intermountain Inter-Tribal School. It grew to having students from nearly 100 tribes.

The school closed in 1984, after which city officials submitted a master plan in Washington, D.C. to get the 17 acres (68,796.6 m²) along U.S. Route 91 back from the federal government. The agreement reached was that the land would remain open space and not be used for anything other than recreation, and it was deeded back to the city.

The school today

Brigham City turned the open land into a golf course and sold the rest to fund the golf course. Objects from the buildings were sold for $100,000, and property was sold for $2.5 million. Currently, some of the buildings remain vacant and some have been torn down, but the dormitories have been turned into townhouses called "Eagle Village". A furniture store, a consulting firm, a martial arts company, and various churches all house their businesses in the former home of the Intermountain Indian School.

For the past 20 years, former students of Intermountain have held an annual reunion the third week of July at Wheatfields Lake near Navajo, New Mexico

Navajo, New Mexico

Navajo is a census-designated place in McKinley County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 2,097 at the 2000 census. Navajo is the most Navajo town in the United States, with 95.04% of residents having full or partial Navajo ancestry....

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Urban legends

Until recently the school was left largely deserted. This allowed local delinquents to break windows and enter to paint graffiti. Entering these buildings is done as a sort of dare. There are several urban legends concerning the buildings. The most popular are that the buildings are haunted, or that tunnels built during WWII connecting the buildings underneath are used for satanic blood filled rituals.

The School property and buildings were originally the Bushnell Army Hospital, designed specifically to treat amputees during WWII. The buildings were all connected by ramp ways for wheelchair access, including ramps between the first and second floors. Both steam heating pipes and electrical power lines ran under the ramps. The students used to speculate that during the war, they threw all the amputated limbs under the ramps. During the war the grounds were meticulously kept by German POW's. In the late 1970's and early 1980's numbers of former POW's returned to show their children and grandchildren where they spent the war. The original School classroom buildings and the school auditorium have been torn down.

Sources

• Kara Campbell & Katrina Brainard, "What Is That 'I'?" The Utah Statesman