Published: December 19, 2005 05:02 pm      

Protecting the past - Big Creek High School facing a new life

Going to War may soon have new meaning in McDowell County. Although Big Creek High School — thrust in the national spotlight after Homer Hickam’s first book, “Rocket Boys,” and subsequent movie, “October Sky” — is expected to close in the spring of 2008, the town is already making plans for the historic structure.

“It’s always been our intent to get this building,” War Mayor Tom Hatcher told the Daily Telegraph last week. “We want to have a science center at the school, and with the help of Sonny Homer Hickam Jr., we hope to make it a NASA museum. We also would like to make a coal miner’s museum as well.”

There is also talk of converting the back of the building into a small hotel to serve all-terrain vehicle riders who will be traveling through the area when the Hatfield-McCoy Trail expands into the region.

The Big Creek Owls have a rich history in McDowell County, and tensions ran high when discussions of consolidation of schools in the county began years ago. Many did not want to see the Owls’ legacy cast aside — even if it meant a new state-of-the-art school for a county hard hit by an economic downturn in recent decades.

The idea to preserve and develop the structure is a admirable compromise between those who want to save the heritage of the past and others eager to move into an exciting and prosperous future. The town has already established a committee that is meeting to regularly discuss plans for the facility, which include the museums and cultural center. “It’s definitely going to them, and they are going to create a museum,” School Superintendent Dr. Mark Manchin said. “We are just going to give it back to the community.”

McDowell County Commissioner Judy Cortellesi has pledged to help seek state and federal grant funding for preservation of the school, built in 1931.

The school will, in all probability, be turned over to a non-profit agency in the future capable of securing the necessary grant funding for the upcoming museum projects.

While class bells, blackboards, lockers and teens dreaming of a future — perhaps one in space, like Big Creek’s famous son Homer Hickam — may be in the historic structure, it will continue to play a vital role in the community.

We commend those visionaries in McDowell County who showed true professionalism and nobility in putting aside differences in letting go of a school obviously close to their heart, and moving on to creating a structure that may one day soon be the new pride of War.