High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Illinois Freedom Bell is located in Mount Morris, Illinois, United States, and is the official freedom bell of the U.S. state of Illinois. The bell was created for a church in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin as a replica of the Liberty Bell in 1862. In 1910, while it was being moved across the frozen Geneva Lake following a fire at the church, the ice cracked and the bell sank to the bottom of the lake. It was salvaged in 1960 and the village of Mount Morris acquired it in 1966. The Illinois Freedom Bell is rung during the annual Let Freedom Ring festival, and it can be found beneath a gazebo on the village square. The bell has been credited with starting an Independence Day bell-ringing tradition across the United States. The bell was designated the official Illinois Freedom Bell in 1971.