And to commemorate the church's upcoming centennial celebration, he's made it his mission to find out what happened to the original bell.

A place is being cleared for it in a memorial garden the church is constructing for its upcoming anniversary. But time may be running out. Carpenter has found few clues about the bell's whereabouts. So the church may simply replace it.

"I have a unique position in the congregation," Carpenter says. A number of years ago, he and his wife joined a church called the Sunnyvale Christian Church, now known as Raynor Park Christian Church. That group of worshippers moved into the original Congregational Community Church building in 1958, after that congregation left that building at the corner of McKinley and S. Sunnyvale avenues was condemned, but the Raynor Park pastor asked the city to let them use it just one day a week for Sunday services.

The condition of the building required a bit of work. "The belfry was filled with honeybees," Carpenter says. "Before services that first Sunday, the men had to come by early to sweep up five to 10 pounds of dead bees from the floor of the sanctuary." At that point, Carpenter noticed a rope hanging from the belfry, one that the new inhabitants left in place out of respect. But no one ever checked to see if the rope was attached to anything.

"We just assumed there was a bell up there. I think we took it on faith," he says. Because of the odd hours that local cannery workers were on the job, it was generally a custom not to ring church bells on Sunday mornings to avoid waking anyone up. Carpenter and others, including the pastor at the time, don't recall ever hearing a bell in that building, but Carpenter is still unfazed. "The rope is solid evidence that there was a bell," he says. "What did it do if it weren't attached to a bell?"

His current pastor, Genavieve Heywood, agrees. "Whichever direction the story takes, it's going to be fascinating," she says.

Carpenter stayed with Raynor Park after it moved out of the old building and into its own church, but made the shift to the congregational church several years ago after admiring their musical program. He took a board position on the committee planning events for the centennial celebration, and mentioned the mythical bell as a possible centerpiece of their memorial garden. "That really got them going," he says.

So it then became Carpenter's job to find the bell. As a retired teacher, he's the only one on the planning committee without career commitments, plus he has the drive. To match his enthusiasm, Heywood gave him a cowboy hat and dubbed him the "bell sheriff."

"Someone has absconded with our bell, so I first thought about a detective theme," she says. "But we're looking toward our 100th anniversary, and I thought about where we were 100 years ago. I went with the Wild West instead."

So far, the name has been appropriate. "Everyone I've talked to, all of them at the [historical society] museum and the city are interested in becoming part of my posse," Carpenter says.

He has spoken with the Department of Community Development, but their records don't go back far enough. "That made me feel really old," he says. He's contacted former parishioners and written numerous letters. Carpenter also went to the office building that now sits where the church once did, and didn't glean any clues from them. But he did pick up on something eerie. "I talked to someone who works there, and they still have a problem with bees in that building," he says.

At this point, he's working on a Plan B. A late church member's wife collects bells, and after hearing the story, she donated one from her collection. Another family at Raynor Park has an old school bell from a school building that burned down that could also be a possibility.

The 100th anniversary of the church is coming up on Dec. 7, so "time is of the essence," Carpenter says. For now, construction of the bell's future home—whichever bell it is—is continuing, with plans for a wheelchair-accessible labyrinth and a garden to draw in butterflies. But Heywood says that the design for the bell will also hark back to the church's earlier days. "We're going to make sure that the ringing isn't abused," she says. "That bell rope is too tempting."