The Mysterious Tone at 1098 Country Club is one of the Seven Mysteries of the City of Davis. It is a tone, reportedly between 30-40 Hz with a modulation of around 2 Hz, that can be heard in and around 1098 Country Club Lane.

1098 Country Club is a relatively modest house for the most expensive neighborhood in town, a ranch-style house stop a small hill under a thick canopy of 100-year-old trees opposite Harrison Park. Joggers and dog walkers in Harrison Park are the major sources of information about the tone, which is reported to authorities every few weeks.

Notably, the mysterious tone has never been recorded or detected by the authorities, who have generally labeled it as a hoax and refused to comment further. This is compounded by the occupant of 1098, whom land records identify only as H. Harrison and who has owned and lived on the property since 1970.

H. Harrison has rebuffed all requests for interviews, generally refuses to answer his door, and has been known to confront suspected intruders with a pistol or shotgun. As this is within the state law’s application of the “castle doctrine,” he has never been charged or punished for such behavior. To keep curious onlookers at bay, Harrison has erected a metal fence on the property and keeps a rotating series of flags flying that are designed to scare away would-be trespassers—generally right-wing extremist flags in nature.

Naturally, many theories have arisen in local gossip to explain the hum and Harrison’s hostility. Most posit an underground laboratory in the hillside, the subject of nefarious experiments, while others believe it to be the result of chemicals leaking from an illicit methamphetamine lab. Enthusiasts and adherents of UFO religions have attempted to connect the tone to the famous Taos Hum or Windsor Hum, but with little result.

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