Digging into Cheney's past

Eastern students to complete historical survey at Cronk's Hill

By BECKY THOMAS

Staff Reporter

The hill stood long before Cheney existed. It played an important role in local history long before it was a popular sledding hill or the site of proposed school fields.

The hill is known as Cronk's Hill, though it gets its name from George Crunk, who homesteaded in the area during the period around 1878 when the hill served as a fort and later as one of the first schools in the county.

The Cheney School District plans to level the hill, visible from Sixth Street between the high school and middle school, to make room for future sports fields, but first Eastern Washington University's Historical and Archeological Services will complete a historical survey to gather any artifacts left from the historic structure that once sat there.

District leaders took their plans to the Cheney Historic Preservation Commission in August, where commissioners expressed understanding of the district's need to expand their outdoor spaces to handle future enrollment growth. They also requested the district do something to preserve whatever historical evidence might remain in the vicinity of the historic hill.

CSD maintenance director Jeff McClure contacted EWU's Historical and Archeological Services director Stan Gough, who agreed to do the survey as a service to the community, free of charge.

“I said that we would be glad to do something and help them out to see if we could find any remains of the old block house or school,” Gough said.

Gough said an archaeology graduate student would lead the project, with the help of other student volunteers. He said the students would begin searching for historical records about the hill and the building at EWU's JFK Library, the Cheney Historical Museum and other archives. Then they plan to go out on the hill to search the surface, then dig a series of small holes and screen the soil looking for historic artifacts.

Gough said the chances of finding vintage tools or other items that match the era are slim, pointing out that the hill was plowed and planted for a hundred years before it was purchased by the school district last year.

“It's going to be pretty unimpressive in terms of the materials,” he said, listing square nails, glass and buttons as possible finds.

According to the testimony of Mary Cook, who taught in the building starting in 1878, the building was constructed quickly as a fort in fear of attack from Indians, but the threat passed and the building became a school.

While a major historical find seems unlikely, Gough said the survey would gather information about the hill into a comprehensive report, which would help inform future generations about its history.

“There's always a chance and that hill is going to be leveled, right? And nobody's going to have this opportunity after that,” he said. “I think it's admirable of the school district to want to look.”

Superintendent Larry Keller said the field plans were in an infancy stage, but they may be included as an option for contractors to bid on when bidding the new Cheney Middle School project in February or March.

“If we would see in there a significant savings, then we would take on that Cronk's Hill as an add-on to those projects,” he said.

Keller said the fields would be named after Cronk to commemorate the hill, and would include signage explaining the area's history.

Gough said the students would complete the survey this fall.

Becky Thomas can be reached at [email protected].