During the month of April, a train named the "Freedom Train" drawn by a steam locomotive set out for a journey to 80 cities in 48 states as part of our Nation's Bicentennial Celebration. The rtrtain carried the american Legion Freedom Bell, a 2:1 scale replica of the Liberty Bell and a model of the bell on display at the American legionm Headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana. It's creation was authorized by Congress on October 12, 1976. When the bell was completed it was shipped to Baltimore, where the Bicentennial journey began aboard the American Freedom Train.
At the end of the journey theplan was to house the bell in the nation's capital on the National Mall and ring the bell at 3:00p.m. each day to remind Americans of precious liberties. However, that did not come to pass. At the end of it's journey in car No. 41, where it shared the ride with a Lunar rover, arriving in Miami, Florida on December 31, 1976, the bell was placed in National Park Service storage from 1977-1978 until placed at Union Station in 1981. A plaque was placed with this inscription:
- The Freedom Bell
- Dedicated to
- The Spirit of the Bicentennial
- on Behalf of
- The Children of Our Nation
- Given By
- The American Legion
- And
- American Legion Auxiliary
- 1981
Post 342 Auxiliary donated $100 to a nation-wide fundraising campaign to help finanace the casting, transporting and preparation of the permanent site. The Post Auxiliary raised money through sales of a gold-braided Liberty Bell sticker.
