Pioneer Days Turns 90 This Month. The Schoolhouse It Honors Started Out Across From Luckie Park.

The homesteaders and miners of Twentynine Palms asked the county superintendent for a schoolhouse, and the answer was no. So they raised $300 and built it themselves. According to a history published by Desert Trumpet, the building went up in 1926 across from what would later become Luckie Park. Eight students attended that first year, and they rode to class on feral burros the miners had left behind.

At 8 a.m. on Sunday, October 18, the 29 Palms Run Club starts the 2nd Annual Pioneer Days 5K at Luckie Park. The schoolhouse no longer stands across the street. It has spent the last 34 years on National Park Drive. This year's festival is themed around that building, so the 90th Pioneer Days ends up visiting both of its addresses.

A Building That Has Already Moved Once

The City of Twentynine Palms chose "A Century in the Making: Celebrating 100 Years of the Old Schoolhouse" as the theme for its 90th Annual Pioneer Days, running October 15–18. The city calls it the oldest public building in the Morongo Basin. City materials label it the "1927 one-room schoolhouse." The Desert Trumpet history gives 1926 as the year it was built. Either way, the building is about a century old this fall.

Its second life began because someone stepped in before it was lost. Here is how the building got from one side of town to the other:

1. 1926: Homesteaders and miners build the schoolhouse with $300 and volunteer labor, across from the future Luckie Park.
2. 1954: The school holds its last graduating class. After that, the building is used for storage for several years.
3. 1982: Five people found the Twentynine Palms Historical Society on April 26.
4. 1990: Morongo Basin Unified needs room to expand on the property. The Historical Society buys the schoolhouse for one dollar rather than see it torn down.
5. 1992: The building is moved across town to National Park Drive. The move involves Southern California Edison, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, and several movers and contractors. Renovations add air conditioning, swamp coolers, and public restrooms so it can open as a museum.

That sequence explains this year's choice of Grand Marshal. The city named the Historical Society, the group that bought the building eight years after it was founded, as Grand Marshal of the 90th Pioneer Days. Z107.7 reported that organizers called the selection especially meaningful in a year dedicated to the schoolhouse.

The Week Opens at the Schoolhouse's Current Address

Pioneer Days starts on Thursday, October 15, at the Old Schoolhouse Museum itself, with the "A Century in the Making" community mixer. It runs 6–8 p.m. and promises live music, catering, photo opportunities, and remarks from Pioneer Days dignitaries. Tickets are $35 per person through the city's RecDesk registration page, sales close October 15, and space is limited.

The Historical Society's own fall programming overlaps the festival's first two days. On Friday, October 16, at 6 p.m., Jim Hinckley presents "A Visit With Jim (Buick, Bicycles, and Manure: Dawn of the Motor Age)" in Founders Hall. On Saturday, October 17, at 9 a.m., he holds a book signing and a conversation about road trips at 29 Palms Beer Company. The Friday talk starts at the same hour as the Outhouse Races downtown, so a Friday at Pioneer Days means picking one or the other.

Downtown Holds the Middle of the Weekend

From Friday evening through Saturday night, the festival is centered downtown around Freedom Plaza, about as far from the schoolhouse's origins as the program gets. The city describes Oasis Lights as a free indoor and outdoor festival with live DJs, a vendor market, and interactive activities. The fan-favorite Outhouse Races are part of the same evening. The city's recreation listing puts Oasis Lights at Freedom Plaza from 6 to 9 p.m.

The city's announcement says the parade will bring marching bands, classic cars, floats, community organizations, and military participants downtown. The Saturday concert belongs to a longer series. The Levitt AMP Twentynine Palms fall season runs at Freedom Plaza from September 26 through October 24. Terrell Edwards and Hotel Mercy play October 10, and Mark Taylor and Los Poncho Tones close the season October 24. That puts the Pioneer Days show in the middle of a run of free Saturday nights on the same stage.

A few events happen before the official festival dates. Reach Out Morongo Basin hosts the Wild, Wild West Hoedown at Tower Homestead on Friday, October 9, at 5 p.m. The Twentynine Palms Rotary Club presents Little Pioneers at Freedom Plaza on Saturday, October 10, at 11 a.m.

Sunday Returns to Where the School First Stood

The festival's last day goes back across from the schoolhouse's first site. The 5K starts at Luckie Park at 8 a.m. Palms-N-Paws Animal Shelter's Pet Parade follows at 9:30 a.m. in the same park, with prizes for Best Dressed and Best Trick.

So in a year that celebrates the schoolhouse, the Sunday crowd gathers across the street from where that building's first eight students tied up their burros. The festival schedule doesn't point this out. The Desert Trumpet history does, by placing the 1926 school across from what became Luckie Park.

The weekend wraps up at the Historic Plaza with the 3rd Annual Pioneer Days Classic Car and Motorcycle Show, hosted by the Friends of the Historic Plaza. The city's lineup includes vintage automobiles, hot rods, custom cruisers, and motorcycles.

The Centennial Continues After the Parade

Pioneer Days ends October 18, but the schoolhouse keeps its own calendar, and it runs into November. The Historical Society's Weed Show takes place in Founder's Hall at the Old Schoolhouse Museum, 6760 National Park Drive. The 2026 show is themed "G.O.A.T. – The Greatest of All Time!" and admission is free.

The Society's Second Friday lecture series runs past the festival too. Steve Reyes presents an illustrated talk, "Harold & Lucile Weight: A Desert Love Story," on Friday, November 13, at 6 p.m. A "Holiday Luau at the Valley of the Moon" presentation and reception follows on Friday, December 11, at 5 p.m.

The museum is also open on ordinary days. From September through May, the museum and gift shop are open Wednesday through Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m. Admission is free and donations are welcome. The library and archives are open Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to noon and on the last Saturday of each month from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. That last Saturday falls on October 31 this year, which is one way to see the building after the festival crowds have left. Inside, the museum keeps a restored 1920s-era classroom. As of the 2022 Desert Trumpet account, the gift shop was in the room that once held the seventh and eighth grades, and photos of the 1992 move were on display.

The city's free Halloween Bash at Freedom Plaza on October 30, 6 to 8 p.m., falls between Pioneer Days and the Weed Show. Downtown ends October with one more evening event before the schoolhouse hosts the November weekend.

Marco Colantonio works with homeowners across the desert who care about buildings like the Old Schoolhouse and the history behind them. If you own a home in Twentynine Palms and wonder how its history and character might come across to the right buyer, Request a Free Market Consultation. We're glad to talk it through over coffee or after the parade.