Bell Rings for Peace Happening: Riverside Joins National Call for Nuclear Disarmament

To mark the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, groups across the nation planned events on Sunday, Aug. 4, 1985, to remember the results of the bombing and the call for peace. The most significant event happened in Washington, D.C., where about 15,000 demonstrators gathered and strung a 13-mile-long “Ribbon of Peace” around the Capitol, the Mall, the Washington Monument, the Ellipse, the Vietnam Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and the Pentagon. On the ribbon segments, groups, families and individuals were asked to depict the answer to the question, “What could you not bear to lose in a nuclear war?” Two of the sections were made in Riverside.

In Riverside, the commemorative events centered on bells ringing at noon on Sunday, Aug. 4. The initial plans called for bells ringing at six area churches and the carillon at the University of California, Riverside campus. The churches were St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, St. Thomas Catholic Church, St. Catherine’s Catholic Church, La Sierra Collegiate Church of the Seventh-day Adventists, First United Methodist Church and Highgrove United Methodist Church. The bells rang out over the city for about five minutes. Organizers emphasized that the bell ringing was not a protest but a simple statement of concern for world peace.

Riverside Park Commissioner Marjorie Von Pohle suggested including the ringing of the bell in the Peace Tower on Mount Rubidoux as part of the Peace Happening event. This was fitting, as the Peace Tower, as its name suggests, was built to commemorate Frank A. Miller’s efforts for world peace.

Several years before the 1985 event, the rope to ring the bell was removed. Neighbors below the mountain complained when individuals broke into the Peace Tower late at night and rang the bell, keeping them awake or disturbing their sleep. Riverside City Park Director Dee Bachman solved the problem of ringing the bell without a rope to pull. He rigged a hook around a pole borrowed from one of the city’s swimming pools and snared the bell’s clapper. He managed to ring the bell for five minutes, standing just a few feet below it. At the end of the time, he stated that his ears had had it and he might have to consider retirement.

A letter to the local paper’s editor a few days later quipped that Mr. Bachman went well beyond the call of duty. She wrote: “As I sat under a pepper tree, eating watermelon with two young boys, I felt so much pride for our city. It was one of the best days of my life. Listening to the old bell ringing out its message of peace was a memory I will always treasure.”

An interesting detail is that the bell in the Peace Tower, which rang out on this day, originally hung in the steeple of the Methodist Church in its former location in downtown Riverside on the northeast corner of Orange and Sixth streets. On this day, the newer bell in the First Methodist Church (now First United Methodist Church, located at 4845 Brockton Ave.) rang out simultaneously.

The Frank A. Miller Memorial Peace Tower and Bridge served its intended purpose well. It honored Miller’s quest for peace by participating in the Peace Happening on the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Watch for information as the Friends of Mount Rubidoux team with the Mission Inn Foundation to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Peace Tower this coming December.