Welcome to Ann Arbor High School!
Class of 1964 Alumni Site
Class of 1966 Alumni Site
Class of 1967 Alumni Site
Class of 1969 Alumni Site
Moving day from State and Huron to 601 W. Stadium occurred over Spring Vacation, 1956. The theory was the students would help move the school to its new location. And students did help. In the top picture, principal Nicholas Schreiber sets an example by carrying two desks from the moving van to their new room.
It was extremely muddy around the school as grass had not taken hold. And there were no sidewalks. The above photo shows a moving van stuck in the mud just below the library of the school.
A science teacher from Tappan, Maylan Buell, filmed the entire construction project with a high quality motion picture camera. The resulting film is featured in a videotaped program produced by the Ann Arbor Public Schools. Tappan Junior High School Principal Gene Maybee co-hosted the program which featured a narration of the film by Dr. Buell. This program airs on Community Access cable television on occasion. To request a showing, call the Community Television Network (CTN) as listed in the Ann Arbor telephone directory.
The highly recognizable Pioneer Seal orginated is a sculptural bronze relief created in 1924 by Avard Fairbanks while he served on the University of Oregon faculty. Fairbanks, while on the U-M faculty, gave permission to Ann Arbor High School to customize the art. His son was a student at AAHS.
It was inspired by Avard's friendship with Oregon Trail Pioneer Ezra Meeker whose passion for recognition and preservation of the Trail was legendary. It depicts a pioneer mother and babe-in-arms in a covered wagon with her husband driving the oxen on a rocky trail.
Original placements of this sculpture are in Baker City and Seaside, Oregon. Additional locations of the monument include Vancouver, Washington and Casper, Wyoming at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center. The Fairbanks design was also selected for the Oregon Territory Centennial U.S. Postage Commemorative Stamp in 1948. The new bronze casting placed in Boise, Idaho is taken from the sculptor’s original model.
About the Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail was the “backbone” of transportation in the early American West. Along it traveled the greatest land migration in human history. From 1841 into the 1880’s, nearly one half million pioneers trekked it to settle America’s western frontiers. Some 20,000 perished along the way. It stretched from points along the Missouri River into the Northwest Territories, and it encompassed parts of the California Trails (“Donnor Party,” “49’rs,”etc.), the Utah (“Mormon”) Pioneer Trail, the Pony Express Trail, and the Overland Stages Trail.
