OLD SCHOOL OF THE DAY
The Little Outfit Schoolhouse
571 Canelo Pass Rd.
Patagonia, Arizona
The Little Outfit Schoolhouse is a ranch school that was built in 1940 in southeastern Arizona. It is located on the Little Outfit Ranch in San Rafael Valley, about ten miles east-southeast of Patagonia, in Santa Cruz County, which borders Mexico on the south and is about 80 miles from Arizona’s eastern border with New Mexico. In the early and mid-twentieth century ranch schools became an important part of the educational system in many western states and Arizona led the nation in total number. The concept set high academic standards but also put strong emphasis on the ideals of the American Old West, rugged outdoor activities, and independence of spirit. The Little Outfit Ranch School provides an excellent example this approach to education
The land the schoolhouse is on was homesteaded by Harry Fryer in 1917 and in 1940 it was bought by Buel and Katharine Hutchinson who named it The Little Outfit Ranch. They built a one-room schoolhouse and later that same year opened The Little Outfit Ranch School. The school was coed the first two years but later was all boys, usually had 20 to 25 students, and covered grades 3 to 8. Academics were strong but there was a great emphasis on the ways of the West and every student was assigned a horse. The people who founded the Little Outfit Ranch School, Katharine (“Kit”) and Buel Hutchinson, moved from Chicago with their three children; Ann, Mary and Ned in 1940.
As a small, private institution, the Little Outfit School was completely dependent on a high level of effort by its owners, the Hutchinson’s. Doubtless an important consideration in their continuing was the completion of their own children’s education which was accomplished in the late 1940s. The resignation of Slim Mayo – the school’s wrangler—in 1947 left the school without one of its most important teachers. While formal grade school education stopped in 1950, the schoolhouse continued as an educational institution for many years thereafter, functioning as the center of an active summer camp. Because it is a fine example of the ranch school education which was so important in Arizona in the early years of the twentieth century, The Little Outfit Schoolhouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 8, 2009. The schoolhouse is managed by the Little Outfit Preservation Group, Inc.
walkerhomeschoolblog 
I went to summer camp here in 19444 & 45. It was a terrific experience for a boy. My horse, Chiquita, and I went on some great pack trips, the one to Miller’s Peak was the longest, (5 days), and best. ”Pete” (Katherine) was the ramrod and sparkplug of the camp. One of her favorite descriptions was “Pantywaist” which indicated a lack of manliness (boy-ness?). We had great fun with campfires, swimming in a stock tank on the creek, snipe hunts and learning to rope among others.
It was a fantastic time and place to be a boy.
Bill Babcock