| Following the directions of my friend "Rachelle," I came upon yet another school in the Ark-La-Tex area. In some ways it's kind of surprising that there are so many schools left to rot, but it's more than I would have ever thought. Rocky Mount Elementary is in the small town of Rocky Mount which is north of Benton and very close to Plain Dealing. Once again, I don't know anything about this school, only the "supposed' reason that it was shut down. According to legend and my friend "Rachelle," there were some students that accidentally mixed the wrong chemicals together, resulting in a deadly chemical gas being released throughout the school, killing several students and teacher, hence the school being shutdown. More than likely the town dried up and there weren't enough students in attendance anymore, but the deadly chemical gas makes for a better story. The school is not hard to find at all. In fact, there's a sign that points you right down the road that it's on. There are 3 buildings: the main school, the gym, and a third building which seemed to be used for maybe enrichment. The main building is no longer able to enter, because the roof has caved in all the way to the ground floor. The only area you're able to get to is one hallway and the auditorium which is on the backside of the main building. The auditorium is pretty interesting, because is has these great theater-style chairs that are all still bolted to the ground, waiting for their last student. Also around back, there's a set of stairs that lead down into a small storage room. There were some workbenches and things of that nature down there which makes me think it was used for storage or for making small repairs around the school. Like the main building, the gym has been better days. The roof is gone there too, but not to the extent of the main building. The bleachers are still in good shape, and the basketball backboards are there, and there are even still light bulbs in the fixtures hanging from the ceiling. They even look like they would work if your tried to turn them on. Any type of flooring is shot though, and it even makes the sound of dead leaves when you walk on the old tile. After I left, Rachelle also informed me that there was some type of basement in the gym is well, but I never saw one. Last but definitely not least is what I'm just going to call the Enrichment Building. The Enrichment Building is two stories, with only a few classrooms, and The Butcher Room, which I'll get to. There was one rather large room that had seemed to resemble some type of Home EC. class room. Other than that none of the rooms were out of the ordinary, except for The Butcher Room. I say Butcher Room because one room, that was rather large, was setup to resemble a slaughter house. The floor was tiled, with several drains in the floor, electrical hook-ups on the ground, and one large freezer with two very thick doors, with railings attached to the ceiling that ran inside each room in the freezer, making a circle. Now I've never been to any type of slaughter house but I have seen The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and there was a similar setup in that movie. |
| To see what Rocky Mount School looked like before the cave-in: Tony's MyPhoto Album of Rocky Mount |