Oak Run started as a mining area for quartz in 1860.
You may even today go out and find fragments of it just laying around.
In 1862 a large survey party from the Millville area tried to find coal beds.
Once more in 1925 Shasta Union Coal Mining Company looked to operate a mine
on the top of Bullskin Ridge right off of Oak Run Road.
The Homestead Act in 1862 was passed and so a steady of stream of Pioneers came to the area.
They filed claims or bought land in the hot, beautiful country of present day Oak Run.
In 1869 a resident was quoted as saying it was “An area of fine farms and cattle ranches”
Old Oak Run Road was a public road to begin with.
It pretty much follows the tracks cut by Wells Fargo Stages.
William Morley was the very first Post Master in Oak Run, around 1877 the post Office was established. First being called the Morley Post Office and later changed to Oak Run.
The first school house was built in 1872. The site of the original school is on the same road as the Oak Run Community Church. Originally it was called Round Mountain due to a school already being run on lower Oak Run Road, known as the Oak Run School.
By the early 1900s the enrollment was around 35 pupils.
With nine grades being housed in the school, school hours were nine to four pm.
The very first school building was demolished around the year 1920 and rebuilt on a new location at the intersection of the Oak Run-Fern Road and Oak Run Road.
Tragically the school burned in 1936.
Due to this emergency the church was fixed up so that school could be held there.
Many repairs and much remodeling was done in order that the children could meet there.
Due to community political issues, the school was rebuilt on its own lot by Ed Phillips, who was a carpenter. Three of his sons own and operate today a steam powered saw mill and box factory on Bullskin Ridge Road.
Finally, in 1953 the Oak and Phillips district lapsed and the two schools formed a joint district.
Morley school, as it came to be called. The name was chosen or several reasons.
First, the voting precinct had been named Morley, in honor of the Postmaster, we mentioned earlier.
Also, it would stop mail confusion, for smoother delivery.
In 1960 the school was built at its present location. The foundation was laid in 1962 and classes started up in 1963.
Finally it was just called Oak Run School.
This is just a peek into the past of the great community of Oak Run, California
We, as the history group wish to preserve and pass along information like this to future generations
Sources
*The Covered Wagon Article by Esther Strayer Stauffer
*Notes of Helen McCarty
