It's a tale that's been told for 200 years. A story that's become tradition on Fort Drum. A tradition that can now carry on for generations to come, all thanks to the efforts of a local Eagle Scout.

What You Need To Know

  • An Eagle Scout helped rebuild a bell tower near LeRay Mansion on Fort Drum

  • It's believed the bell was originally there as a way to remember a young girl who passed away

  • Soldiers now ring the bell to not only honor the young girl, but signify a return home from deployment

Justin Bath was the very first to ring the bell. But in time, the hope is thousands, if not tens of thousands, will ring it as well.

"I think that's, honestly, really cool to me. The fact that people come out here all the time and ring that bell. It feels good," Bath said.

As legend has it, some 200 years ago, a bell was placed right on the site of the LeRay Mansion on Fort Drum after the death of the 1-year-old granddaughter of the man known as the 'Father of the North Country', James LeRay de Chamout.

"The family had placed a bell here and rung it so that they'd remember Clotilde (the child's name) every time they came and left the mansion," Dr. Laurie Rush of the Fort Drum Cultural Resources Department said.

As the decades passed and the family moved on, the bell went with them. However, Clotild's gravesite remained.

Much more recently, upon hearing the story, someone, no one knows who, brought a bell to the site. Now it gets rung to signify a different kind of return home.

"So now it's become something of a Fort Drum tradition, not just to come and ring the bell for Clotilde, but also to celebrate return from deployment. 'And soldiers today still do that?' Absolutely," Dr. Rush said.

When Justin Bath heard this story, he thought of all the times his father has returned home from a mission overseas and what that meant to him.

So, with permission of course, he offered to untie the bell from a tree and build it a proper tower for his Eagle Scout Project.

"He just works so hard for us and the country," Justin said of his father.

"I could not be more delighted. Not only is it remembering a lost child but it is so beautiful, it just adds to the experience when people come to enjoy the mansion," Rush added.

Normally, people can access Fort Drum to check out this site, but just not at the moment as COVID-19 restrictions are still in place.

It's yet another chapter to what's become quite the story.