St. Anselm’s Bell Tower Repaired After Lightning Strike

ANSELMO--An act of Mother Nature destroyed a piece of history at St. Anselm's Catholic Church. On August 15, 2016 a severe thunder and lightning storm hit Custer County and lightning struck one of the four bell tower spires, leaving it in chunks on the ground below. Now, more than a year later, the spire has been repaired on the 1929 church. Anselmo resident Linda Gaffney and her husband Howard live about a block away from the church and have essentially grown up in the church and watched their family do the same. Linda told KCNI/KBBN that Howard's great grandmother donated some of the land. Howard and Linda were each baptized in the church and celebrated their wedding in the "Cathedral of the Sandhills." They have now watched some of their children do the same. The Gaffneys were at home the night of the storm and described the sound "like a big bomb went off." They took flashlights over to the area and saw pieces of the spire all over the ground and reported that the lights had gone out due to the storm. Gaffney said after the congregation researched expenses and dealt with insurance, it's a relief to restore the Gothic bell tower to its original beauty. "It's a historical landmark and, you know, it just means so much to have it redone and fixed the way it should be," Linda Gaffney said. "To think it's that old, and when those [spires] were first put up, how those people-how they did that. All man-power labor, I mean they didn't have these big machines," she continued. Services are held at 8:30 on Sunday mornings. Photos by Dean Ringlein   Photos taken before lightning strike: After lightning strike: Photos taken during repair work earlier this week: