Driving into Plum City on this crisp  4-degree February day, church bells playing "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" can be heard signaling the noon hour. The hills surrounding the town serve as Mother Nature's protector from weather and most cell phone tower services. If you need to hop on a local businesses' wi-fi to make a phone call, just ask. They'll let you. When the town needed to pass a local school referendum to ensure their school and all the people coming with it didn't leave town, they passed it.

Most people driving up and down the main drag in Plum City feel as safe as the huge fish swimming in the never-frozen spring-fed pond in the middle of town.

It's also safe to say Pillar Bank in Plum City has the coolest safe with one of the coolest vault stories in the state of Wisconsin. If you don't believe me, just ask 88-year-old retired Plum City banker Harriet Rothe. It's safe to say she'll tell the story.

"Oh, heavenly days, yes, I will!" said Rothe.

Plum City had not had a bank for a number of years after the Great Depression and World War II. In 1967, a group of Plum City townspeople, led by local veterinarian Sam Solie, chartered a bus and drove it to Madison.

“Those people are all gone now,” said Rothe.

The result of their state capitol trip almost 60 years ago, though, was the first official branch bank in the state of Wisconsin, the Bank of Spring Valley- Plum City branch.

"I'm sure not many people around here even know that," said Rothe, "and here's the official pen and plaque to prove it."

The Plum City branch was built from scratch on donated land, but the builders had to construct the building around the purchased bank vault.

"That safe is as big as a room and the walls are 12 inches thick," said Rothe. "It sure is unique."

The bank in Plum City has changed names from the Bank of Spring Valley-Plum City Branch in 1967 to the Bank of Baldwin in 2007 and, now, with locations in seven different communities, an updated name to Pillar Bank.

One thing has remained unchanged all these years, however: the Diebold Safe & Lock Company vault inside Pillar Bank has been doing its job.

"The safest place in Plum City is that vault," said Rothe.

"It is actually the official designated shelter on paper now," said current 25-year bank employee Deb Radle.

"I'd say it's probably 150 years old," said Rothe.

From research, Rothe made a pretty safe guess on the Gilded Age vault made by the Diebold Safe & Lock Company.  

Charles "Carl" Diebold immigrated from Germany to Cincinnati in 1847 and found work with C. Baumann & Company safe makers. Diebold bought into the business in 1859. In 1871, after the Great Chicago Fire, every single one of the 878 Diebold and Baumann safes were not only still intact after the fire, so were their contents. Business was booming and they outgrew their space in Cincinnati and moved to Canton, Ohio. Diebold bought out the rest of the shares and was the sole owner by 1876.

The Pillar Bank vault does not have Baumann's name on it and the city of Canton is also listed, so it can be concluded it was built on or after 1876 from these facts. 

In 1890, always trying to stay one-step ahead of the bank robbers, Diebold Safe & Lock Company built vaults made of manganese steel to sustain dynamite blasts. The vault at Pillar Bank is manganese steel and is believed to have been built around 1890, so it is close to 135 years old. 

The Diebold company is still in business today; however, they have diversified their business with other types of electronic security and ATM's.

There are saved legible markings on the vault for annual maintenance and combination changes dating back to Oct. 4, 1922, and signed by W.H. Furman from Yale Time Lock.

One of these annual combination changes about a year ago birthed a true story that will likely be the centerpiece at Radle's retirement party whenever that day arrives. Radle worked side-by-side with Rothe at the same bank for seven years until 2007 when Rothe retired. Radle has been at the same location for 25 years.

"The one and only combination that we had got locked into the vault," said Radle turning to Rothe to ask her. "You probably don't even know about this, do you, Harriet?"

"Noooooo," said Rothe as she scooted up in her chair and leaned in for the office gossip.

Radle tried everything she could think of to remember the new combination. Unfortunately, the Diebold Safe & Lock Company vault did its job keeping the small fortune safe from not only bank robbers, but bank employees, too.

A temporary safe was brought in for a few weeks while the dilemma persisted.

"It was going to be incredibly expensive to dig underneath and drill through the concrete and steel," said Radle, "but our bank president, thank goodness, found a guy in North Branch, Minn."

The safe cracker was described as a really old guy carrying two leather bags that looked like he walked right out of an old west movie, according to Radle.

"He looked right at the vault, scratched his head and said 'hmmmm' as he breathed out," said Radle as she nervously asked the old man, "Do you think you're going to be able to get into this vault?"

"Oh, I'm gettin' in," said the old safe cracker with the confidence of Doc Holliday at the O.K. Corral.

"He had the whole stethoscope thing and a little of this and that," said Radle. "And, dang it, if he wasn't into that vault within an hour. I thought there was no way that guy was getting in."

The old wild west safe cracker's bill was $265.

"We have a landline phone inside the vault now and definitely have off-site secure combinations," said Radle. "You live and you learn, but oh my goodness was that a stressful time."

"For heavenly days, I bet so," said Rothe, "but at least everyone's money was safe! It really is the safest place in Plum City.”