PLOVER
Wisconsin - Portage County
December 22, 1939: "Wisconsin conservation department crews have recently completed erection of a 100-foot, steel fire tower about two miles south of Plover. It is the second fire tower in Portage county, another being located several miles further south.
The new tower is of the secondary type and will be occupied only in periods of extreme fire hazard, according to Charles W. Riley, director of WPA conservation projects in District 5. Primary type towers, he added, are occupied continuously during the summer months.
Principal reason for putting up the new tower was to make it possible to ascertain the origin of smoke to the north---whether coming from timber blazes or from mills at or near Stevens Point, Riley said. A private telephone line runs from the tower to the district ranger station at Friendship. The enclosed shelter at the top of the tower overlooks many acres of land, mostly flat, sandy and with few trees.
The new tower is one of 31 erected throughout the state under a WPA project sponsored by the conservation department. Steel for the towers was purchased in flat form and taken to Tomahawk where it was bent into angle form by WPA workers. Holes for bolts also were drilled at Tomahawk. The steel then was taken to Milwaukee to be galvanized. Riley said 361,694 pounds of steel were used in constructing the 31 towers and that the average cost for for steel for each tower was $500.
WPA workers put in footings for the towers, landscaped the sites, built roads to the towers, hooked up telephone lines and assisted in hauling the steel into the air. Actual erection of the towers was done by conservation department steel workers. The conservation department furnished plans and specifications, equipment for bending the metal and facilities for hauling the towers to location." (Stevens Point Journal)
The new tower is of the secondary type and will be occupied only in periods of extreme fire hazard, according to Charles W. Riley, director of WPA conservation projects in District 5. Primary type towers, he added, are occupied continuously during the summer months.
Principal reason for putting up the new tower was to make it possible to ascertain the origin of smoke to the north---whether coming from timber blazes or from mills at or near Stevens Point, Riley said. A private telephone line runs from the tower to the district ranger station at Friendship. The enclosed shelter at the top of the tower overlooks many acres of land, mostly flat, sandy and with few trees.
The new tower is one of 31 erected throughout the state under a WPA project sponsored by the conservation department. Steel for the towers was purchased in flat form and taken to Tomahawk where it was bent into angle form by WPA workers. Holes for bolts also were drilled at Tomahawk. The steel then was taken to Milwaukee to be galvanized. Riley said 361,694 pounds of steel were used in constructing the 31 towers and that the average cost for for steel for each tower was $500.
WPA workers put in footings for the towers, landscaped the sites, built roads to the towers, hooked up telephone lines and assisted in hauling the steel into the air. Actual erection of the towers was done by conservation department steel workers. The conservation department furnished plans and specifications, equipment for bending the metal and facilities for hauling the towers to location." (Stevens Point Journal)