In the front yard of a home in the picturesque town of Elgin, Nebraska is a treasury of more than 150 bells bought, collected, and curated over the course of decades. These bells ring out the story of the Great Plains, as they were formerly on church steeples and one-room schoolhouses just east of the Sand Hills of Nebraska. They rang out special occasions, emergencies, the start of church services and school days, and are firmly a part of rural life. Jim Mies rescued many of the bells in his…
