Carson City, Senator Bryan plan ceremony for bell

The 259-pound brass bell of the World War II frigate USS Carson City was stuck away on a shelf at the city library here for eight years after being rescued from a small Idaho town that just needed a working bell.

In 1992, David Henley, a military historian and publisher of the Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle-Standard, was in Washington D.C. researching ships with Nevada names and discovered that the bell to the USS Carson City had survived the ship's decommission in 1971.

It was on permanent loan from the Navy to Yellow Pine, Idaho, a town of 68 people 120 miles north of Boise, that wanted a combination school bell and community fire alarm.

"The bell is always one of the most important artifacts of a ship," Henley told the Nevada Appeal in Carson City.

Henley decided the bell was an important part of Nevada history and rightly belonged in the capital, not in Idaho. He enlisted Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., to help return the bell to Carson City

"It was the only memento, the only piece left. In the state museum we had silver and things from the battleship Nevada. We had nothing but photos of the Carson City. Dick Bryan and I agreed it was unfinished business. It was important to get it back."

Tom Baker, Bryan's rural representative, said Yellow Pine had no phone service in 1992 and calls had to be made to a sheriff in a nearby town to even inquire if the town would give up its bell. Residents agreed as long as another bell could be found to replace theirs.

Bryan arranged for a substitute bell from the Navy to be shipped to Yellow Pine and the bell of the Carson City made its way to the library shelf.

Henley and Bryan asked Carson Mayor Ray Masayko if the bell couldn't be put in a more prominent location, and it now rests in the main lobby of City Hall awaiting Friday's dedication.

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