Providing a basic education for their children was a high priority to prairie settlers. Classes began at the Lower Fox Creek School in 1884 and continued until 1930. Land for the school had been donated by Stephen F. Jones, original owner of the adjacent Spring Hill Ranch. The school’s basic one-room style, constructed of the same limestone which underlies its knoll, provided a place where the basics were taught—reading, writing, arithmetic, and geology. From their little prairie school, local children were introduced to the world. Some stayed to inherit family ranches, while others went off to explore places they had only seen on schoolhouse maps. As the tallgrass prairie has become an increasingly threatened landscape, the type of view seen from the Lower Fox Creek School has become increasingly rare. As part of the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, it will continue to be protected so that children of the future can enjoy and learn the basics of the prairie.