The Capitol holds a replica of the Liberty Bell, given to Wisconsin by France in 1950 as part of a savings bond drive and quite a bit of controversy.

The 2,045-pound bell, 85 percent of which is copper, is the same weight and size of the original but has no crack and is on display on the second floor of the Capitol rotunda.

The bell was first housed at the Wisconsin Historical Society but was later moved to the State School for Girls in Oregon where it was discovered in 1968 in rough shape and missing its clapper.

The framework was repaired and the clapper replaced with the bell moved to Fountain Park in Sheboygan, where it was rung each Fourth of July. The bell was supposed to be in Sheboygan for only about a year but wasn't moved back to Madison until 1975.

The move, designed to help the state celebrate the country's Bicentennial in 1976, was preceded by heated letters from Sheboygan officials who wanted the bell to remain in their city and an executive order from Mayor Richard Suscha making it illegal for anyone to set foot in the park for the purpose of removing the bell.

The state threatened legal action, Suscha rescinded his executive order and, after two years of haggling, the bell was returned to Madison.

"I can assure you that on my many trips to Madison I will keep a wary eye on the Liberty Bell and make sure it does not get shoved off in some corner of the Capitol unnoticed by residents of the state," Suscha wrote in a letter to the state in March 1975. "I may have lost the battle of the bell, but I have not lost the war."

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Liberty Bell replica - Madison.com