Clock Tower, Rock Springs, Wyoming



--#164, 188, 58


Time Means Nothing at City Hall
"Time means nothing at the Rock Springs city hall.  It hasn’t for 55 years!
For the past 55 years, the four clocks adorning the tower of the city municipal structure have been halted at 8:20.
Many person in Rock Springs thought the locks were just in need of repair, but workmen preparing for the installation of new chimes in the city hall found that the timepieces were for purposes of adornment only.  The hands were nailed in position and not the least semblance of clock works was discovered in the tower. 

When the city structure was completed in 1895, the clocks were installed and the hands fixed in position at 8:20.  During the years a legend has arisen which contends that all dummy clock faces are stopped at 8:20 in commemoration of the time at which President Abraham Lincoln died.

Two Rock Springs jewelers refute this story.  They say that clock hands are affixed in that position because it makes the face more open, and all of the dial numbers can be read.  The jewelers offer the fact that such clocks were in existence long before Lincoln died as proof of their contention.”

Published:  26 July 1955 Rock Springs Rocket (from Rock Springs Historical Museum)

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