Did You Know: Wyoming Has A Liberty Bell, And It’s Perfect Right Down To The Crack

MILLS — The Liberty Bell at Independence Hall in Philadelphia attracts crowds of people wanting a glimpse of the iconic symbol of the America’s founding and freedom — and of course its famous crack.

What most of those who contemplate America as the land of the free and home of the brave — and the continuing fight to keep it that way — don’t know is they could also do that in the middle of Wyoming.

Walk into the lobby of Excal Inc., a foundry in Mills next to Casper, and there’s an exact replica of the bell with a clapper that works, the same period spelling of a state name, inscribed Bible passage and, of course, the crack.

Excal Vice President of Operations Mike Baures said the story behind the 2,080-pound replica goes back nearly 60 years to 1966 and Walter Knott of Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, and Buckeye Brass Foundry in Huntington Park, California.

Knott had a vision to create a replica of Independence Hall and needed an exact replica of its famous bell.

“They were calling around trying to find someone to make a bell and several foundries denied it, but Buckeye Brass took the deal and said, ‘We’ll make a bell … (and) we get to make one copy for ourselves,’” Baures said. “So, the sister to this, supposedly the better copy, is in that Independence Hall across from Knott’s Berry Farm.”

The Move

Buckeye Brass went on to merge with Acra-Cast Foundries of Compton, California, and its operations would move to Mills and become Excal in 1991. Buckeye owner Fred Harmon brought the bell with him.

So now the lobby of a foundry in Mills has become a local patriotic destination for scores of elementary school children and others who happen to hear about Wyoming’s Liberty Bell.

Baures, who was working for the company at the time it came to Wyoming, said the bell’s move into the Mills lobby came through the double doors with a forklift and then placed carefully on pallet jacks and moved into place. Complete with its yoke and display stand, the display weighs 3,000 pounds.

“We have school kids come in here to see it and every customer or potential customer takes a picture with it,” he said.

California newspapers from 1966 carried articles on the dedication of Independence Hall as well as the difficulty in getting the bell created by Buckeye Brass to crack. As a replica, the bell is 12 feet in circumference around the lip and 3 feet from the lip to the crown. The lip of the bell is some 3 inches thick.

The original bell, cast at a foundry in London and shipped to Philadelphia to be hung in what was then its state house, cracked during a test strike and was recast twice.

After ringing in the new nation July 8, 1776, when a public proclamation was made about the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, and other important occasions, it cracked sometime during the 1820s to 1830s. One account has it cracking during a visit of revolutionary hero Marquis de Lafayette.

The Crack

Getting the replicas to crack wasn’t so easy.

A story in the Los Angeles Times on Jan. 4, 1966, reports Knott’s Berry Farm concessionaire Bud Hurlbut, who commissioned the bell as a gift to Walter Knott’s Independence Hall project, had the foundry design the bell with a weak stretch of metal.

The plan was to pour cold water on the weakened strip, but that didn’t work. They tried a sledge hammer, then a jackhammer, and both of those didn’t work either. Dry ice also failed and finally, a heliarc torch was used.

The bell at Excal shows the touch of a torch as well.

On the back of the bell in the foundry lobby, just as with the original, Pennsylvania is spelled “Pensylvania.” The state also is spelled with just one “n” in several documents found at the National Archives written by founding fathers.

The replica also contains the passage from the book of Leviticus, Chapter 25, Verse 10: “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”

While the Mills foundry does not make bells or do art-based work, Baures said having in the Wyoming lobby is appropriate.

That’s because the Cowboy State is one patriotic place, and all who see the exact Liberty Bell replica in the local foundry appreciate what it stands for.

“I think it is quite appropriate in Wyoming, which is the Equality State,” he said.

Contact Dale Killingbeck at dale@cowboystatedaily.com

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.