The Ledger on Julie's Pond: Numbers That Wouldn't Stay Buried

The Ledger on Julie's Pond: Numbers That Wouldn't Stay Buried

A leather-bound ledger surfaced, dry and legible, on the frozen east bank of Julie's Pond on January 9, 2014 - the same week and shore where Julie Peterson's body was found 132 years earlier. Who placed a century-old accounting book perfectly open on the ice, and why does its timing mirror the day a woman drowned?

In this episode, we follow the discovery of the ledger, the archival work that connected it to a long-buried death, and the small-town records that never quite aligned. What does a pristine book and one terse archival note reveal about Julie Peterson's death and the town that renamed the water after her?

Person: Julie Peterson
Date: January 15, 1882
Location: East bank of Julie's Pond
Event: Body found; cause recorded as drowning and extreme water temperature
Person: Brian Hunt

- The ledger was found by Brian Hunt on January 9, 2014, sitting on top of the ice and open to its center spread.
- The temperature the morning Hunt found the book was four degrees Fahrenheit.
- Julie Peterson was thirty-one years old when her body was found on January 15, 1882.
- The county inquest ruled her death an accidental drowning, and the Trinity Methodist burial register listed the cause as "weather incident."
- A laborer named Edward Corey found Julie's body and left Calverton the following spring with no further county records.

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