One of my favorite aspects of Geocaching is opportunity to go to some locations with some interesting history. Hopefully this will be one of them.
"Sitting innocuously next to an apartment complex, the Anderson Tower Monument remembers an attempted tourist attraction which was subverted by an ironic flaw despite being built from the same granite as the famous Mormon Temple.
Built in 1884 by entrepreneur Robert R. Anderson, the eponymously named Anderson Tower was modeled after the medieval towers of Scotland. It was Anderson’s intention to create an attraction where visitors could pay to go to the top of the tower and observe the young city. The tower was built 54 feet high and another 25 feet in diameter using granite mined from the same quarry that had previously supplied the nearby temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Unfortunately the fatal flaw in the plan would seem to be the location. Anderson built his tower atop the highest hill in the region, from the summit of which, visitors already had an impressive and unobstructed view of the Salt Lake Valley.
Due to the lack of interest in paying to ascend the redundant tower, Anderson eventually simply boarded the tower up. In the ensuing years the site was reopened, allowing visitors to climb to the top, free of charge. Unfortunately interest in the tower waned yet again and it was finally demolished in 1932.
Today the only remnant of Anderson Tower is a low-lying monument that is built out of the destroyed tower’s own granite."
This location is a nice memorial park dedicated to an interesting part of Salt Lake City's history. Enjoy the views from here and imagine what it would have been like to scale a tower and get an even greater view of the valley. Browse the pictures and see how much the area and the Salt Lake Valley have changed over the years.
To claim the cache message me the number of granite stones that make up the base of the monument, don’t include the granite slab that the plaques are on. All of the stones that make up the base, all layers not just the bottom! Not the stones embedded in the ground. Can be tricky with the corners. Logs will be deleted if I don't receive confirmation.
Also feel free to post a picture of the amazing view from here!
Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.