Keystone Chosen as Logo for Academy
Snowflake Academy Foundation has chosen for their logo, the carved inscription on the keystone of the north facing arch in the Academy Building. Placed there by the builders in 1913, the sentiment Self Effort Educates, will ever hold true.
After the loss of the brick academy building by fire in 1910, it was decided that the rebuilding would be done of local sandstone. A contract for the stonework totaling $12,000 was awarded in August 1911 to Frank Willis. Willis was not only responsible for laying up the stone, but he had to first quarry it.
A site just south of town where the Snowflake Junior High School football field now sits was chosen as the quarry for the red stone. In this area the stone was quarried, cut and rough shaped, then loaded on horse drawn wagons and hauled to the site of the new building where skilled stonemasons, all local men, finished and laid up the block slabs.
The name of the man who fashioned the keystone of the arch is lost to time, but his efforts and artistic skills, as well as the inspiring thought inscribed thereon, is a memorial to all who labored there.
The sketch of the keystone was drawn by talented local artist, Stephen Eich.