My phone and internet weren’t working very well today up at the dacha, so I came into Chewelah to work out of the library.  There is a large bell between the library and City Hall. I snapped a picture of it and asked the librarians who filled me in. Turns out that it was cast in Baltimore, Maryland in 1889 but purchased in 1890 (the date on the bell is 1890.) It seemed pretty big for such a small town. It is - It weighs 1800 pounds. Well, it turns out they got it used. Originally, the bell belonged to the Spokane Fire Department who were the 1890 buyers. But they sold it to the Chewelah Fire Department in 1908 for $375 after Spokane got a modern fire alarm system and set the bell out in the boneyard. I love learning about the history, large and small, and meeting the people in our district. Yesterday I was up in Pend Orielle County (where I got the mushroom I posted yesterday and had for breakfast today), and last week I was in Clarkston… it’s gonna be Spokane tomorrow and I’m heading back down to Pullman and then a house party in Palouse this weekend.
I love my library and it’s making my work reaching people a LOT easier. But if our congressman was doing his job and getting that money already allocated for broadband to rural areas I could have stayed up at the dacha and worked WHILE I ate my mushroom. But then again- I wouldn’t have learned about the bell today, would I?