School District #17 was established in March, 1913. A white frame building was constructed and Miss Douglas opened the 1914-1915 school term in the new school named Morin. The families of the Morin School students tried to take up residence as close to the school as possible, but it was not unusual for students to ride horseback or walk several miles to attend school.

In 1918-1919, a second school was held in a makeshift school building (a trapper’s cabin, eight feet by twelve feet, up off the ground about two feet) about ten miles south of Morin.  Attending this school were five children.

By the late 1920’s, families were settling farther to the north of the district; and a need for another school developed in that area. For a short time, a room in an abandoned depot at the Coburn Railroad Station served as a school room.  In about 1928, a tarpaper shack left by oil-drillers was moved to a spot below the depot and was used as a schoolhouse through the 1933-34 term. This was named Coburn School.

During this time, two more small schools had been in use farther south in the district. A cabin was converted into a schoolhouse and called East Pryor School. Also a school was built on Fourth of July Creek and was named Fourth of July School and is sometimes referred to as Upper Pryor School.

For the 1932 to 1934 school terms a boxcar was converted into a schoolhouse near Wagon Box Springs.

In 1934, District 17 purchased the Bitter Creek schoolhouse from District #26 and moved it to a spot near the old Coburn depot. This school was a one-room frame building, large enough to accommodate the enrollment that had outgrown the tarpaper shack. It was renamed Coburn.

During the 1932 term, another school was needed in the district; so the contents of East Pryor School were moved to a house once occupied by an Indian named Little Fire.  This school has been referred to both as Little Fire and East Pryor.

Fourth of July School closed at the end of the 1939 term. The census was low in that part of the district for the next few years, so school was conducted at Morin and Coburn only from then on. Several students rode horseback to school, and those living near the main road were transported by passenger cars, station wagons and later school buses.

In 1957 a new modern schoolhouse was built at the Morin site.  At this time the district was consolidated and all the students were bused to the new school. The new building was built of red brick, a contrast to the white schoolhouses so familiar in the district in the past.  The original frame buildings were sold and the original Morin building was dismantled.

The only remaining school in District #17 at present is a modern school with three classrooms, equipped with the latest educational needs. It is located a short distance from Connelly School, the original log school built in 1910 to accomodate the educational needs of the children of the early-day Pryor Creek settlers.