PFRO ML/0002
Open fileThe Bell Has Not Cracked Since
- Region
- The Interior
- Series
- Marrow Lake Historical Society deposit
- Classification
- Council minutes
- Document date
- 1978-11-14
- Received from
- Marrow Lake Historical Society (duplicate deposit)
- Location
- Field sheet ML-2, sq. 4 (approx.)
- Opened to reading room
Incident summary
Typed minutes of an ordinary November council meeting, eleven pages. Road salt is approved and a complaint about a dog is tabled. The annual inspection of the fire-watch bell above the Grange Hall then records damage the foreman logs as a casting flaw. One member insists the bell must not be replaced but recast from its own metal, in time to be tested on the solstice. The work is done that winter behind closed foundry doors. People out late on the night of the test describe a sound from the direction of the lake. One line on the last page is struck through in pen and initialled by no one recorded as present.
Statement of a resident (excerpt)
It rang true the first time it was struck. Clean, and long. Longer than iron ought to carry a note.
Then from out on the lake, something answered. Not an echo. An echo doesn't take four seconds,
and it doesn't come toward you across the ice. Some said a groan. I'd say a breath, let out slow.
. After that the meetings just went on, and .
Resident, out late on the night of the test, name withheld
Artifacts
Grange Hall Inspection RecordArt. 1
Item inspectedFire-watch bell
FindingHairline crack, crossed by a second mark
Foreman's causeFlaw in original casting
RecommendationReplace (overruled)
ResolutionRecast from its own metal
COPY
PFRO Index CardArt. 2
PagesEleven, typed
Lines struck throughOne, in pen
Initials match attendanceNo
Seat vacancies recorded
Following year's attendance copied forward. Ask at the Society.
NOT OTHERWISE CLASSIFIED
Related media
- BroadcastWatch on YouTube
- AudioThe Small Hours podcast: Apple Podcasts · RSS feed
Other files, The Interior
- PFRO ML/0001 The Family That Thanked the Lake Wrong
- PFRO ML/0003 Eleven Seconds of Dead Air (pending)
- PFRO ML/0004 Still Warm to the Touch (pending)
- PFRO ML/0005 Four Messages for Enid (pending)