A “bronze” Liberty Bell has appeared next to the Campbell County Courthouse in Gillette, and for days nobody knew how it got there.
The bell, supported by a wooden frame inscribed with “Let Freedom Ring,” appeared on a vacant concrete pedestal in the courthouse’s courtyard sometime in the last week. Everyone who works at the courthouse was bemused and befuddled.
“We had been circulating some emails here internally at the courthouse, wondering where it came from,” Kristin Young, Campbell County’s public-information officer, told Cowboy State Daily. “Nobody seemed to know.”
Bell Weather
The mysterious Liberty Bell isn’t bronze. It’s actually made of papier-mâché, but soundly constructed.
A bronze sculpture once occupied the concrete pedestal where the bell sits, but Young said it was vacant for at least a decade. A contractor was redoing the pavers on the walkway around the pedestal when the bell was noticed.
Young assumed it must have been associated with homecoming. Both Campbell County and Thunder Basin high schools had their homecoming parades the previous week.
“I'm not sure it was a prank,” she said. “I wondered if it was on a parade float before, and someone was looking for somewhere to put their Liberty Bell.”
Young put a message out to the community, asking whoever installed their Liberty Bell if they wanted it back.
“While we love the patriotic spirit, we want to make sure it wasn't placed here temporarily or left behind by mistake,” she said. “I was just concerned that it wouldn't hold up in the weather.”
Spirit of ‘76
Jessica Seder, executive director of Gillette Main Street, admits she masterminded the act.
“My design and beautification committee created it as a special gift to the county when they placed it down there,” she told Cowboy State Daily.
The Liberty Bell was made by Gillette’s Mike Morrison Ministries earlier this year for their Independence Day parade float.
“They built it by hand,” she said. “They made the shape of the bell out of wood, wrapped it with chicken wire, put papier-mâché on top of that, and put a really cool finish on it. You would not know that it's papier-mâché. It looks metal.”
Not wanting to throw away all their hard work, Mike Morrison Ministries donated the bell to Gillette Main Street. Seder intends to use it on the Parade of Lights on Dec. 5.
In the meantime, Seder has tried to find a suitable place for the bell.
“We had no idea how large it was until we got it,” she said. “Our first thought was that we could put it on one of the corners of Gillette Avenue, but it was much larger than was going to fit on one of those stands for bronze statues.”
Because the concrete pedestal in the courthouse courtyard was unoccupied, Seder and some local contractors placed their Liberty Bell there. They covered it with a special finish to protect it from the elements and inscribed “Let Freedom Ring” on the wooden frame.
“This year’s Parade of Lights theme is America’s 250th, so we hope it’ll make it to the parade,” Seder said.
Let Freedom Ring
Young said there would never be any citations or charges filed for their placement of the Liberty Bell. She and the courthouse staff had just wanted to know where it came from and who put it there.
Now that they know, the Liberty Bell is free to stay in the courtyard until the Parade of Lights.
“We think it's kind of a delight,” Young said.
After that, who knows? Seder hasn’t considered what will become of Gillette’s Liberty Bell after the December parade.
“We'll have to see what the county thinks, and we'll have to decide then what to do with it,” she said.
Over the years, the Avenues of Art initiative has installed bronze sculptures throughout Gillette. It was started in 2005 by the now-defunct Mayor’s Art Council.
The Liberty Bell at the Campbell County Courthouse isn’t designed to be as permanent as the bronze sculptures.
Could the temporary bell lead to installing a permanent one? That idea rang a bell for Seder and Young.
“I think it’d be great to have a Liberty Bell in Gillette,” Seder said.
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
