Milwaukee's Tower of Light Traditional Cache
Wis Kid: As there's been no cache to find for months, I'm archiving it to keep it from continually showing up in search lists, and to prevent it from blocking other cache placements. If you wish to repair/replace the cache sometime in the future, just contact us (by email), and assuming it meets the guidelines, we'll be happy to unarchive it.
Milwaukee's Tower of Light
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(micro)
Related Web Page
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Located in Milwaukee county Estabrook park, very easy terrain and quick find off a county trail. Parking within 250' of cache. Bring your own writing utensil. Also be careful as there can be a lot of traffic in the area at times.
This is a microcache located on the Milwaukee county parks trail (former rail road tracks) near this massive tower. I've been told by the construction crew working on this tower that it is the tallest free-standing structure in the state of Wisconsin (meaning no guy-wires to hold it up). Below is a brief history of this tower, which I find quite interesting.
This cache is a small micro-capsule located within 10' of the parks trail. Good luck, and happy caching!
---HISTORY OF TOWER---
The WITI Tower was completed in August of 1962 and was briefly the tallest free-standing tower in the world, rising 1078 feet. (Tokyo Tower had been the world's tallest, and after the construction of WITI's tower, it added additional members to regain the title.) For many years, it was the tallest free-standing tower in the United States. The Bentley Company was the foundation contractor for the Dresser Ideco tower, which was erected by the Seago Construction Co.
The village of Shorewood allowed WITI to build the tower on a piece of privately-owned land that might have completed Estabrook Parkway along the Milwaukee River. Doing so added to the village's tax base. The WTMJ-TV and WISN-TV towers were nearby, and locating the tower there meant that Milwaukee TV viewers could point their antennas in the same general direction. However, there was no room for guy-wires on the property, and as such the tower had to be free-standing. In August of 1962, construction of a 1078 foot tower at East Capitol Drive and Estabrook Parkway was completed. It was formally dedicated on 9 October 1962. WMVS leased space on the tower for many years.
WITI was looking for a way to make the tower a Milwaukee landmark, and in October of 1963, the station received permission from the Shorewood village board to install lights on it. Shortly thereafter, approximately 2000 25 watt lights were installed. Station manager Roger LeGrand then coined the phrase "Milwaukee's Tower of Light". Some neighbors objected. The Shorewood village attorney opined that the lighted "6" sign might violate the village's lighted sign ordinance, but that the lights affixed to the tower's legs were legal. The village later declared the lights and the sign to be legal. (Except for special requests - such as to aid navigation on Lake Michigan during sailing races - the tower was only lit from dusk until midnight.)
The lights stayed on until the energy crisis of 1973-74, when at the suggestion of a viewer they were turned off. They were finally removed in 2003 when the station began converting the tower for digital TV.
SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA.ORG
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ybbx sbe gerr onex