News: Owen – Water Tower Being Relocated (Oct 1977)

Transcriber: Stan

Surnames: None

----Source: Owen Enterprise (Owen, Clark County, Wis.) 26 Oct 1977

Monday, October 24, 1977, was an exciting day in Owen, as workmen with a huge crane began dismantling of the seventy year old Owen Water Tower in preparation for moving it to it now location on the hill in the First Ward.

The large crane was brought in n Monday morning, and by mid-afternoon the top or roof of the tank, was being lowered to the ground, and by around 4:30 the tank itself was cut free from its legs and lowered slowly to the ground. The oversize crane was brought in special for just this task. The workmen reported that the tank itself weighed about fifteen tons.

The on Tuesday morning the legs of the tower were dismantled. The braces between the legs were cut by a torch and the first two were lifted and then lowed to the ground. However, as the last two legs were lifted from the concrete base the standpipe in the center, which the engineers had expected would stand on its own, tottered and then collapsed against the two legs that were moving. It was fortunate that the standpipe did fall whn it did, where there was something to prevent serious damage, or an accident. The smaller cane was moved up to hold the standpipe from the two remaining legs until they could be lowered, and then later the standpipe was lowered, instance and without any damage.