The Centralia Carillon and tower park were created as a realization of a life-long dream of Mr. William Joy. Mr. Joy’s first contact with bells was at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Later he became fascinated by the carillon while traveling through Northern Europe. This made him decide to start raising funds for a carillon in his hometown, Centralia. Most of the bells are memorials and carry the names of their donor. The biggest bell (bourdon) is named Great Thom (After Mr. Joy’s grandfather and after his own son). In the past two decades, the carillon has gained a lot of popularity in Centralia an has become Centralia’s musical monument. 

A carillon is a musical instrument consisting of bells. The origin dates back to the Netherlands around the 1400s and is therefore one of the oldest western musical instruments. The instrument is played with a baton like keyboard which is connected to the clappers of the bells by a transmission system.