CRATA RESCUES ANOTHER TOWER

The tower's owners offered it to CRATA for free if they would make the trip to Virginia to remove it

CRATA rescues a second tower

STORY BY BETSY ILER PHOTOS COURTESY OF CRATA

CCRATA expects to break ground this fall for the addition of its second fire tower at Lake Martin, this one to break the skyline just north of Overlook Park with stunning views that stretch from Chimney Rock to Kowaliga Bridge. The 110-foot tower will complement the Smith Mountain Fire Tower, which 11 years ago was reconstructed on Sandy Creek. The new tower is 20 feet taller than Smith Mountain’s tower and will consist of 15 levels and 135 steps to reach the cab. The rails, crossbeams, cab roof and walls weigh some 8 tons, and its footings will be 7 feet deep. The property on which it will stand – 12-plus acres of Martin

Dam project land – was purchased from Alabama Power to Cherokee Ridge Alpine Trail Association last month. “This is high profile property,” said CRATA’s president, Steve Thomas. “The tower will enhance an already great view of the lake and will attract people to our trails, making the lake even more of a great destination.” Cherokee Ridge Alpine Trail Association raised $52,000 while building the Smith Mountain Fire Tower.

The 501(c)3 nonprofit organization hopes to raise $70,000 in this new campaign. While the bulk of that amount would help to develop the area and construct the new tower, additional funds will be used to purchase and maintain equipment for the preservation and construction of trails at all of CRATA’s Lake Martin hiking venues. The possibility of raising a second fire tower first came to light in early 2021, said Jimmy K. Lanier, who co-founded CRATA in 2004 with hiking friends. “It all started with a conversation I had with David

Vanna, who was the owner of a company called Fire

Tower Restoration in New York. He told me there was a tower available, and CRATA could purchase it,” Lanier explained. “Vanna was going to ship it to Lake Martin.” “We considered building it at the John B. Scott Trail, but in the end, the view would not have been as stunning as we hoped,” Thomas explained. While CRATA searched for the appropriate tower location, Vanna took an opportunity to sell the tower to someone else, but he told Lanier of another tower he knew was available, this one in Virginia. Vanna had the original plans to the tower and sent them to Lanier. “The tower’s owners had purchased the property and didn’t want the liability. They said we could have it for free if we came and took it down,” Thomas said. With the ball already rolling, CRATA continued to pursue a location for a new fire tower while Lanier made a visit to Virginia to check it out. He returned from that trip in August 2021 and pronounced the project feasible. “Everything but some of the diagonal ‘X’ braces were good. The tower was in good shape. The ground around it was flat, and the tower would be relatively easy to take down if we could avoid the power lines beside it,” said

Lanier. Conversations began in earnest about where to put the new tower. Some 12 years ago, CRATA had looked at the possibility of purchasing acreage north of Overlook Park to build a hiker information outpost, but when the Smith

Mountain Fire Tower project came up, the board shifted

CRATA hired a crane to take the tower down

Volunteers used a manlift while loosening fasteners to dismantle the tower

its attention there.

Though a location had not yet been determined, six CRATA volunteers borrowed a 14-foot flatbed truck and a 20-foot trailer and headed to Virginia one year ago this month. Traveling with Lanier and Thomas were Mike Wilson, Walt Hutcheson, Fred Worsham and Roger Wolczek. They spent five days taking the tower down.

For the first two days, Thomas said, they loosened the fasteners on the 90-year-old tower to make its actual deconstruction go more smoothly on the third day when the crane arrived.

“We took it down in five stages, each stage consisting of two or three flight sections,” Lanier said.

The crane they’d hired was bid at $250 per hour for a minimum of eight hours.

“It took just three hours, and after the owner found out what we were doing, the final charge was only $1,000,” Thomas said.

With the more manageable crane sections on the ground, the CRATA crew spent the next two days dismantling them with the use of a manlift, as the individual sections were unstable and not safe for individuals to climb on. Each piece was tagged and marked as it came off the sectioned structure and was loaded onto the flatbed or trailer.

“It doesn’t look like much laying in pieces on the ground,” Lanier said. “But it’s heavy.”

Plagued with flat tires on the trip home, the team bought five new ones on their way to deliver the tower parts to Lanier’s Eclectic home. There, the process of refurbishing the tower began, though a location for its reconstruction had yet to be identified.

“Each piece of metal has to be hot-dip galvanized. The treatment will extend the tower’s life,” Lanier explained.

Some parts were rusted through and not reusable as diagonal braces but could be cut down and used to make substantial handrails like those added to the Smith Mountain tower.

“For the original tower, the handrails were down by your knees,” he said. “Those guys who worked in the towers were used to running up and down, and they didn’t need more than that. But that’s not safe enough for our purposes. Safety will be our primary concern, just as it was on the Smith Mountain Fire Tower.”

The new handrails on the tower near Overlook Park will be higher, and 3-inch wire mesh will be added to the handrails and landings. These additional safety measures did not exist on the original tower and will require the drilling of approximately 2,000 holes through the 3/16-inch metal.

“Wendell Hornsby of Eclectic lent us the use of his water-cooled metal saw when we did the Smith Mountain tower, and he has again donated the use of his machine for the new tower. We just have to buy him a new saw blade,” Lanier said.

The CRATA board has found that outpouring of assistance in other aspects of this tower project as the refurbishing process continues prior to the actual construction of the tower. Chris George, also of Eclectic, helped to punch the holes through the heavy metal at no charge, just as he did for Smith Mountain.

Logs that were donated for lumber needed for the

CRATA volunteers spent two days taking apart the tower sections on the ground The crane lifted sections of three flights and placed them on the ground

The cab will be rebuilt and delivered to the new tower site by trailer One set of stairs was missing but was found and purchased in Union Springs

Loaded onto a flatbed truck and trailer, the tower pieces weighed 8 tons

new tower was cut at a sawmill owned by Jerry Bynum of Dadeville, a longtime member of the CRATA board. The wood is drying in various locations around the lake area, the space donated by supporters of the project.

When CRATA inquired to purchase 2 acres near Overlook Park for the project from Alabama Power, the utility offered to sell 10 acres to the organization instead of just two. Then, when the survey of the property showed it at 12.4 acres, the utility included the additional acreage in the exchange for the 10-acre price.

There is still much to be done before construction can begin. The wood will be taken to Florida for a special treatment beyond pressure-treating that will extend its use up to 50 years. The tower area and parking lot will need to be cleared and footings poured.

“We hope to get the footings in this fall, but we have a lot of work to do before we can start. Prior to hotdipping, we’ll have to bend all the angles and get holes punched in those,” Lanier said.

The stair flights will be pre-fabricated and installed, along with the landings, as the tower goes up. Each landing will be completed before the next one is built, Lanier said. One flight of stairs was missing from the tower when it was dismantled in Virginia but was purchased from a man in Union Springs.

“We’ll use a manlift for everything but the cab. We’ll build the cab offsite and take it to the tower location on a trailer for installation,” Thomas said.

Once actual construction begins, the process could take a few months to complete, depending on weather and available volunteers, he added. The tower could be open as soon as next summer.

Once it’s finished, access to the south tower will be easier than Smith Mountain’s tower feature, as the Overlook area tower will stand just off Overlook Drive. No hiking will be required. A trail from the tower will connect to existing trails in the area, part of which already are on the new CRATA property.

It’s an ambitious project, Thomas and Lanier admitted, but it’s entirely doable and is expected to draw visitors and hikers to CRATA’s free trails. And while the organization is pleased to accept, and truly needs, qualified offers of service from volunteers, there will be costs involved for the construction project and for supplies and equipment to maintain CRATA’s hiking venues at the Forever Wild property south of Martin Dam, the Overlook and Deadening trails and at Smith Mountain. Donations to CRATA are welcome. Visit crata.org to donate online and choose the south tower option or send checks to CRATA, c/o Jimmy K. Lanier, P.O. 240503, Eclectic AL 36024. See the donation form on page 28. Donations of $300 or more will be acknowledged on a permanent cast plaque at the south tower location.

“This,” Lanier said, “is just another great adventure.”