A mystery at UW-Stout has been solved, some 36 years after it started.
Back in 1969, the stout clock tower was stripped of its big, white, wooden "S." The tower has a new "S" now, and the mystery makes sense after one of the students who liberated the "S" spoke up.

This story begins, ends and is filled with the letter "S."

Stout's first "S" was strung up in 1922. In '69 it what some art students considered an eye sore. One such student, John Clavin, says the sneaky stunt was a campus beautification project.

"We looked up at the old rickety "s," and thought it would be really nice to remove it, we climbed up, with tools and removed it quite nicely."

Clavin, and an unnamed accomplice snatched the "S" and stole away to the Red Cedar River to sink their secret.

He says, "I threw it in the river because the worst thing is someone could find it and put it up again that would be horrible, it was so rotten it needed to go."

So the s set sail.

"It was never seen again," says Ryan Wilson with UW-Stout University relations says the scandal spawned several stories.

Wilson says, "it's always been kind of a mystery rumors over the years, nothing proven."

Until now, spilling the secret, Clavin sent this letter to Stout, he discovered the original "S" was part of the school song's inspiration.

Clavin says, "too busy singing Bob Dylan songs to pay attention to the alma mater."

But the new and former faces of stout have been paying attention to the s situation. Wilson says "it's been the talk of campus and the community for the past couple of days."

And by fessing up, the student artist solved the mystery and saw his vision come full circle.

Clavin says, "telling people 36 years later was like a completion of the project, fact there was a new s now... The story needed to be told to finish out the art process."

Clavin is now a sound engineer in Hollywood. He says several other art students knew he stole the "S" but didn't squeal. Stout leaders say they're not too worried about the safety of the new "S," because no one is allowed in the tower anymore.