Tower Hill State Park
43°08′49″N 90°02′56″W / 43.14684°N 90.04884°W
| Tower Hill State Park | |
|---|---|
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape) | |
| Location | Wisconsin, USA |
| Nearest city | Spring Green, Wisconsin |
| Area | 77 acres (0.31 km²) |
| Established | 1922 |
| Governing body | Wisconsin DNR |
Tower Hill State Park is a 77 acre (0.31 km²) Wisconsin state park which contains the reconstructed Helena Shot Tower. The original shot tower was completed in 1832 and manufactured lead shot until 1860. The park abuts the Wisconsin River and is bordered by state-owned land comprising the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway.
Natural history
The bluffs along the Wisconsin River are formed of Jordan Sandstone. The park lies within the Driftless Area, a region of the American Midwest that remained ice-free through three successive ice ages.[1]
History of the shot tower
Shot towers harness the effects of surface tension on liquids in free-fall, a technique developed in 1782. Molten lead can be poured through a strainer at the top of a tower or shaft. The droplets become spherical as they fall and cool in this shape during their descent. The pellets are caught in a water basin where they finish cooling.
In 1830 a businessman from Green Bay, Wisconsin named Daniel Whitney was traveling along the Wisconsin River and recognized a sharp bluff near the town of Helena as a promising location for a shot tower. From the top of the bluff there was a 60 foot sheer drop, below which the sandstone cliff sloped down to the riverbank, 180 feet below the clifftop.
The 60 foot cliff was a convenient headstart, but Whitney needed someone to continue a shaft for the remaining 120 feet to ground level. Access to the bottom of the shaft, where the lead shot would be collected, necessitated a 90 foot horizontal tunnel. In 1831 Whitney hired Thomas B. Shaunce, a 22 year old lead miner in Galena, Illinois, for the task.
Shaunce worked mostly alone but received some assistance from a friend named Malcom Smith. They dug with pickaxes and a gad, using gunpowder to loosen the harder rock of the lower layers. Shaunce used a plumb-bob to ensure that he was keeping the shaft perfectly straight, and a windlass to haul out the broken rock. Shaunce calculated where to begin digging the horizontal tunnel by standing across the creek and sighting with his rifle directly below the top of the shaft. He began digging in from the riverbank, using a line of stakes to maintain his alignment. When he first broke through from the horizontal tunnel to the bottom of the shaft, a blast of air knocked Shaunce unconscious and collapsed one of his lungs.[2]
The project took 187 working days, interrupted in the spring of 1832 when Shaunce and Smith both returned to Galena and enlisted in the Illinois Militia to fight in the Black Hawk War. Shaunce had been contracted to be paid $1000 for his work, but was ultimately offered land instead.[2]
A smelting house was built at the top of the cliff, and the 60 foot drop from there to the opening of Shaunce's tunnel was enclosed with a wooden shaft. A finishing house was built on the riverbank, where the shot was dried, graded, and sorted. The raw lead mostly came from mines around Dodgeville, Wisconsin.[3] The shot tower was operated by a crew of six, producing between 600 and 800 pounds of quality shot per day, which was transported to Milwaukee. Operations ceased in 1860 during an economic downturn, and the buildings were torn down and the equipment sold off. The village of Helena was abandoned soon after.[1] Thomas Shaunce died around 1860 as well. Throughout his life he experienced respiratory trouble from the air blast in the tunnel, and felt he had been cheated of his proper payment.[2]
Later history
In 1889 the site was purchased for $60 by Jenkin Lloyd Jones, a member of a prominent Welsh-American family in the region. A Unitarian minister, Jones set up a religious retreat he called the Tower Hill Pleasure Company.[3] In 1911 Jones' nephew Frank Lloyd Wright began building his studio Taliesin on a neighboring hill. After Jones died in 1918 his wife donated the site to the state, and Tower Hill State Park was officially created in 1922. The smelting house and wooden shaft were rebuilt.
In 2006 parts of a horror film called Witches' Night were filmed within the state park.[4]
Recreation
Tower Hill State Park is open from May to October. Visitors can enter several historical structures. The smelting house contains exhibits about the construction and use of the shot tower. Structures remaining from the Tower Hill Pleasure Company include a pavilion (now the park's picnic shelter), a gazebo, and the foundation of a barn. There are two miles of trails leading up to the tower and down to the riverbank, where visitors can enter the horizontal tunnel to the bottom of the shaft. There is a small campground with 15 campsites, drinking water, and pit toilets. Nearby attractions include Taliesin, the American Players Theatre, the House on the Rock, and Governor Dodge State Park.
References
- ^ a b Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Tower Hill State Park Visitor . 2006.
- ^ a b c Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Tower Hill State Park interpretive signage.
- ^ a b McCann, Dennis. " Tower Hill State Park provides a view of the land." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Milwaukee, Wis.: Oct 15, 2006. p. A.2.
- ^ Conklin, Melanie. "Movie crew films bewitching horror in Spring Green." Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wis.: May 14, 2000. p. 015.H.