A 100-year-old school bell is back home in Rocky Mountain House.

The nearly 800-pound Confluence Bell was first ordered in 1925 and originally welcomed students at the old wooden Confluence Schoolhouse, where École Rocky Elementary now stands.

Sometime in the 1960s, the bell mysteriously disappeared from the building, and its whereabouts remained unknown for decades.

Rocky Museum manager Jean-Marie Mason suspects the disappearance may have been linked to “gate night” mischief.

“The night before Halloween, pranksters would take gates off people’s houses, push over outhouses — they’d get into a bit of trouble,” she said.

After the bell vanished, the schoolhouse became division offices, then later the first home of the Rocky Museum before it moved north of Highway 598.

In 2025, Allan Sunde and the Rocky Agricultural Society began researching a historical marker for the old Confluence School and wondered what had become of the bell.

Their research revealed it had ended up in the Warburg area at St. John’s School for Boys.

“Around 1967, the St. John’s boys school was looking for a bell, and somebody from Rocky Mountain House made it happen — we don’t know who,” Mason said.

In the early 2000s, an agreement was made that if St. John’s ever closed, the bell would return to Rocky Mountain House. But when a new charter school opened at the site, the bell stayed put.

Once its location was confirmed, the Ag Society, along with Mason and Rocky Museum president Shane Boniface, launched a campaign to bring it home. When the building went up for sale, they contacted the owners — and succeeded.

With help from Clearwater County, Challand Pipeline and other local partners, the bell is now back at the Rocky Museum.

Mason says early plans are underway to build a permanent tower to display the bell for the community.

The Confluence Bell at the Rocky Museum. It’s awaiting a more permanent, lofty home. (Rocky Museum/provided)