CANYON CREEK — Dan McDonald remembers a time when little kids really did walk three miles to school in snow and subzero temperatures to share a room with a teacher and every schoolmate.

He often rode his bike, and sometimes his mother would help him out by tying a rope to her saddle, giving him a boost in horsepower.

McDonald, who attended in the early 1930s, gathered with scores of other former students and teachers, family and friends on Saturday at the Trinity School, where an all-class, seven-district reunion drew folks from near and far to reconnect and reminisce.

People came from as far as Idaho, Washington and Nebraska to join in the fun, trading stories about old teachers and friends, recalling snowball fights, ghosts, and the old flip-top desks, which came complete with inkwells.

They rang the bell, raised the flag, said the Pledge of Allegiance and sat down to a summer picnic.

The Trinity School District, established in 1893, long ago absorbed a half-dozen neighboring districts in the patchwork of schoolhouses that stretched across the county. Some of the older alums, like McDonald, attended Little Prickly Pear School, which merged with Trinity more than a half century ago.

The Wilborn School followed, and was brought across the land and attached to the back of the school building. The consolidated Silver City-Birdseye district joined later, followed by Austin and Marysville.

The school is still a home for learning, with a teacher leading a handful of students from kindergarten through sixth grade. Last year, the school sat nine. This year, it may see 14 students.

The school held a similar gathering for its 100th anniversary in 1993, but this was the first time many of the former students had returned to the place where they first learned multiplication tables.

Former students and school-board members who still live in the area came up with the idea to hold the reunion. Earl Wohlfrom, one of the organizers, said it was an opportunity to gather together old friends and meet new ones. He went to Trinity, as did his father, his children, and his grandchildren.

Karen Chevalier, who drove up from Butte for the event, remembers the fun times, like the ice-skating trip up the creek. The school had an outhouse at the time, and got fairly cold in the winters.

Keeping control of 20 kids spread across several grades was sometimes a challenge for the teachers, Chevalier said with a laugh.

Though the district now runs a bus to pick up some students, Jeanine (Dallas) Lange remembers riding Frosty, her pony, to school in 1971. Frosty would graze in the yard while the first grader learned her lessons.

Trinity is one of the few small school districts of its kind in Lewis and Clark County. After decades of consolidations, most of the original patchwork of 48 districts is gone, County Superintendent Marsha Davis said.

Keeping the school going is important to the area, board member Poo Putsch said. She didn’t attend the school, but fought to keep it going a few years ago when some folks starting talking about merging with Helena.

“I just felt really committed to having the school in the community,” she said.

Reporter Larry Kline: 447-4075 or larry.kline@helenair.com