For years, the Mines community has wondered who is the person responsible for the beautiful bell-ringing coming from Guggenheim. Cynics have claimed that the bell sounds are fake and electronic and until now no one has known what to believe. Upon sending a freshman writer to climb Guggenheim one evening, The Oredigger has discovered that the bell tower is indeed authentic, and has also found the identity of the bell-ringer: Jake Larson.
Upon his discovery, Larson was excited to show the campus his joy of bell-ringing. The president and dean of the school had wanted his identity to remain secret “in order to protect him,” but Larson seems to be handling his new-found fame very well.
Being a bell-ringer is not an easy job, but Larson does not complain, stating, “I get nights off and usually only need to be in the tower at the top of the hour and during special hours”. Special hours include the noon hours and 5 o’clock hour, when extensive songs are played with the bells. Jake also is a student at CSM and does academic things between bell-ringing, but bell-ringing comes first. Although he keeps with the classics, Larson is allowed to compose his own songs. One of his best pieces is played during the noon hour. “I got the idea after learning about randomness in Java,” Larson said. The song sounds random to the ear, but Larson generated a song using Java that had truly random notes to compare, and Larson’s original pseudo-random hit still stands as the best song in his repertoire.
Other schools have tried to recruit Larson to play bells in their administrative buildings, but it is clear that Larson loves playing only in Guggenheim’s tower. In wind, rain, snow, and sun: Jake Larson is visible under the gold dome, ringing away.
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