AMERICAN FORK — Karen Schaack is searching for the world's oldest Caveman.
Not the prehistoric kind, mind you.
Schaack is on the lookout for those who cracked history books at American Fork High School since its 1902 founding.
Former students of the venerable Utah County school with the troglodyte mascot are being called back to the old haunt to celebrate the school's 100th birthday.
More than a few former football stars, flag twirlers and Future Homemakers of America won't have to travel far to see old classmates and fellow alumni at the school.
Many settled in the neighborhoods surrounding the school. Their own children attend pep rallies, sing the school song and don fancy dresses and spit-shined shoes for dances.
Look no farther than City Hall. American Fork Mayor Ted Barratt is an old Caveman. The school's football and baseball coaches, an assistant principal and several teachers also are former students.
"The roots seem to run deep here," says Schaack, who has found former students who attended in the 1940s. "Maybe it is a small town thing. They just feel really strong about their roots."
The building at 510 N. 600 East is not the first place students attended classes, according to "Early History of American Fork: With Some History of a Later Day," by George F. Shelley, whose ancestors were among the first to settle the area in 1851.
Joseph B. Forbes was the first teacher of the classes, which were held in back rooms of a downtown bank. For some reason unknown to historians, the classes were discontinued for two years.
In 1905, classes resumed at Harrington school, now a boarded-up abandoned building. The campus moved a few times before settling at the current site, according to Shelley.
Laurel Shelley, great-granddaughter of the city's historian and daughter of Arlo Shelley, a one-time principal of the school, returned to her alma mater soon after earning a teaching degree.
The 1980 graduate struggles to explain why she sought a job at the school. Most adults shudder at the though of returning to hallways filled with the bitter memories of teenage angst.
And who wants to stand in front of smirking sophomores who just spotted your senior picture in the library's stash of old yearbooks?
"It's hard to say," said Shelley, an English teacher who relishes memories of her volleyball team buddies. "But there's a lot of people who feel this way."
During this year's Homecoming in September, alumni are invited to march in the parade, play in an alumni band and attend a reception for former students. An assembly will feature music from every decade since the founding of the school.
Schaack, who isn't a graduate but adopted American Fork High as her own when three of her children passed through its doors, is looking for old yearbooks, letter sweaters or athletic uniforms to display during the Sept. 26-27 Homecoming event.
Laurel Shelley plans to retire from American Fork High. There's no other place with the same "feeling of unity," she says. "I have no desire to go anywhere else," she says. "It's been a rich part of my life."
E-MAIL: jeffh@desnews.com