In a fertile valley about thirteen miles northwest of Coleman in the settlement of Silver Valley, a one room schoolhouse, which was a large building, was built in 1896 or 1897.  It was school district #20.  Approximately sixty or seventy students attending this school each year, for a number of years.  Later a partition was built in the building and it became a two teacher school.  This was not a nine month school, only five or six months were spent in the school rooms, but the students knew arithmetic, language or grammar, history, geography, and they could write and spell.  Some of the teachers were: Mr. Larkin, Ada Saunders, Barney McCasland, Annie Nelson, Jewell Duggins, Winnie Cray, Elizabeth Truly, Effie Baker, and Mrs. Hull.

In 1909, when the railroad was built, it completely bypassed Silver Valley, three miles to the east.  The new town, by the railroad, which was laid out by a land company, took the name of Silver Valley for the railroad town.  This made the residents of the original “Silver Valley” very unhappy, therefore the name of the railroad town was dubbed “New Town.”  Thus the first Silver Valley became known as “Old Silver Valley.”

Several years later the school, as well as the community, was renamed Viets in honor of Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Viets and Grace.  In 1939, the Viets School consolidated with the Novice School and the children were bussed to school there.