My list included the wish that someday I'd be able to ring a church bell. I did get to ring a fairly large bell, if not a church bell. It was a memorial bell, located at Rogers Pass in the Selkirk Mountains.
The bell comes from a 1907 steam engine from the area and sits atop a pedestal rock which is from an old stone-arch railway bridge. The bridge was on the 1885 line between Glacier National Park and Yoho National Park.
The memorial garden, opened by Parks Canada just before we got there, marks the area where 58 rail-workers were killed, clearing snow from the rail line, in what is known as Canada’s largest avalanche disaster. Of the men killed, 32 were Japanese immigrant workers. The avalanche occurred in the area on March 4, 1910.
It was a privilege to ring the bell out of respect for the many lives lost building and maintaining the rail roads across our great country.
Ring my bell is a popular song. Glad you have one more thing off your bucket list. Sounded like a fun day as well as a time to honour those lives lost.
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