A Gob of Historical Significance

By: Nick Pollard

Throughout my various pilgrimages to the hallowed halls of the Catherine Dixon Hoffman Library, adjacent to our very own North Warren, I’d often find myself perusing the local history department. This almost morbid curiosity for anything historical has captured my general interest for some time now, slowly evolving into a somewhat obsession for anything obscure in nature. Beit traditional American History, to ancient civilizations, to even true-crime cases, I've always had this profound fascination with finding out why something happened and what changed because of it. 

One book that caught my eye, in particular, was from the American Bicentennial in 1976, which detailed up until then, fascinating stories about the history of Blairstown and many other miscellaneous side stories. Picking up that felt, faded-red book for the first time, I wasn’t expecting anything too profound. But as I kept reading, I was surprised to learn more and more about all these significant events just lost to the sands of time. The following issues of The Patriot Press will contain stories like the one I’m about to tell you, and continue until I either run out of material, or I’m finally run out of town. Whichever comes first…

North Warren’s always brought out strong opinions from the “well informed” locals. Most of them regard the constant flounderings by the administration, but even its presence seems to spark a controversial debate between townspeople. This isn’t a new thing by any means; flipping through that bicentennial book (past the five pages devoted to murders) to the section regarding the newly built high school revealed a myriad of information regarding the locals' then-feelings about North Warren. 

The multiple planning meetings open to the public only garnered a staggering twenty (or fewer) people in attendance, and the common consensus at the time was a mix of apathy and utter vexation. Many people didn’t like the idea of a bigger, more expensive school in their town, and others didn’t like the idea of a modern complex being built in historic Blairstown, on what was a family-owned farm nonetheless. Others simply didn’t really care or didn’t have much of an initiative to do anything, good or bad. 

Eventually, after much deliberation, the school opened its doors in 1971 with a student body composed of four local townships. After a while, the townspeople grew to accept North Warren as being a crucial part of the town, and many local alumni in the area say their time here was some of the best in their lives. In closing, it was an interesting subject to look into, given that public opinion now isn’t really in North Warren’s favor and many people would rather just go to Blair (it’s pretty easy, just have your mom work there or be a multimillionaire).