Since last year, I’ve been working with the MN DNR and Hennepin county in writing the criteria and selecting the contractor to clean and repair the tower clock in the upper post of Fort Snelling (it’s where Custer got his orders which resulted in his “last stand”). It’s a big clock. The pendulum bob weighs 135 pounds by it’s self. Seth Thomas estimated the overall weight of the clock and weights “boxed, about 1,500. lbs.”
Phil Wright (The Tower Clock Company in Ohio) was awarded the contract. So this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we removed the clock, piece by piece, down 3 flights of stairs. I realized, early Thursday morning, that a visit to the gym was going to be rather unnecessary.
While we were working in the building, someone called, and when he realized that I was at on old military post he said we must be “minute men”. That term goes back to the American Revolution, but I still thought it was pretty original).