TIL there is a Liberty Bell in every US state

TLDR - The Louisiana Liberty Bell is at the Old Arsenal Museum by the State Capital

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Want to see the Liberty Bell this semi-quincentennial but don’t have the time or cheese for a pilgrimage to Philadelphia? Have no fear: Chances are, there’s one at a state Capitol, museum or even a fire station near you.

It won’t be the original, but it’ll be a dead ringer.

For a savings bond drive in 1950, the Treasury Department commissioned copies of the famously broken bell, one for each U.S. state and several territories. Except for the serial numbers, they were faithful replicas — right down to the Pass and Stow trademark and a faux crack.

There’s a small but growing group of “bell hunters” who’ve dedicated themselves to visiting as many of the replicas as possible. If they were a gang, Tom Campbell would be the ringleader.

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https://apnews.com/article/liberty-bell-replicas-america-250-8161316db7869ba83d61e616960eeb2d

This 1950 photo provided by Paccard Foundry shows rows of replica Liberty Bells, ordered by the U.S. Treasury for a savings bond drive, as they await shipment at the Paccard Foundry in Lac d’Annecy, France.

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Campbell didn’t know about the replicas until he moved to Denver in the late 1990s.

“I was wandering around, meeting a friend at a bar for a drink, and cut across the Capitol lawn and saw a full-size Liberty Bell sitting there,” he recalled. He read about the bond drive on a small bronze plaque, and a quest was born.

As Campbell and his wife, Dawn Putney, traveled the country, they began building bell trips into their itinerary. One day, she surprised him with his own website:

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https://tomlovesthelibertybell.com/

The Treasury bells toured the country on the backs of flatbed Ford trucks equipped with loudspeakers and festooned with red-white-and-blue banners.