Ohio History Journal


EDITORIALANA

EDITORIALANA.

 

VOL. XVIII. No. l.                                 JANUARY, 1909.

 

SERPENT MOUND TOWER.

It will be recalled that the Seventy-Seventh General Assembly

(1908) in the appropriations for the Society, made provision by a

special appropriation of $500 for the erec-

tion of a tower at Serpent Mound. At

the meeting of the Executive Committee,

held July 16, 1908, the matter of making

a contract and supervising the erection of

this tower was placed in charge of a

special committee consisting of Treasurer

Wood and Secretary Randall. After ne-

gotiating with various concerns competent

to build such a tower, and submitting the

matter to competitive bids, Messrs. Wood

and Randall in behalf of the Society final-

ly made a contract with the Columbus

Wire & Iron Works Company for the

amount of $500.00. The company imme-

diately proceeded to construct the tower.

It is made entirely of steel, which com-

plete weighs about 6,000 pounds, is twen-

ty-five feet high with ascending stairs

to the top platform, which is eight feet

square.  The tower was completed     in

August and erected at the factory by the constructing company in Colum-

bus for inspection by the committee and found to be satisfactory and

according to contract. The material for the tower was duly transported

to Serpent Mound and on September 2, 1908, Secretary Randall there

met the force chosen by the manufacturing company for the erection

of the tower. A location for this observatory was selected near the

tail of the serpent. The erection of the tower was completed in four or

five days.

The location selected proved to be well chosen and the purpose

of the tower satisfactorily fulfilled. From the platform the observer may

see and carefully study the entire length of the serpent which heretofore

could not be viewed entire from any one point, owing to the irregu-

lar convolutions of the serpent and the peculiar contour of the hilltop

upon which it is located. We give a reproduction of a photograph

of the tower as it now appears.

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