Fort Ostell Museum Bell - Ponoka, Alberta
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T0SHEA
N 52° 40.868 W 113° 35.046
12U E 325320 N 5839933
Fort Ostell Museum is a great museum to visit while in Ponoka. The museum is across on Hwy. 2A from Petro Canada.
Waymark Code: WMZ8BC
Location: Alberta, Canada
Date Posted: 09/27/2018
Views: 0
The Fort Ostell Museum society was founded in 1967 with their first museum housed in a wood frame building. It moved to their current location in 1987.
This is an interesting museum with displays divided into topics: sleigh display, nurses at PMH (Provincial Mental Hospital), creamery, original Fort Ostell, World Wars, early bridal dresses, a school rooms and many household appliances. Near the entrance is a guest book and a timeline highlighting events from 1867 to 2017.
Outside the building, near the entrance, is this cast steel bell, still hanging in what we assume to be its original yoke. Today bell and yoke are mounted for display atop a pair of concrete pillars. Stamping on the yoke indicates that the yoke, at least, is of cast steel and that the bell was cast by the National Bell Foundry Company of Cincinnati, Ohio. We did not find a number stamped on the bell or the yoke to indicate its size, but we assume it to be about a 32 inch bell.
The National Bell Foundry Company seems to have been in existence from 1901 to 1921, a relative latecomer to the bell casting industry. Little else is known of the company. It seems to have cast only iron OR steel bells, depending on the source.
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