Scrapbook page

[mrs_sweetpeach]

Interested in more information on the towers? Check out The story of the Irish Hills Towers on Michigan in Pictures.

Comments

[bennys-mum.livejournal.com]

I can barely see it on my blackberrt... I'll have to have a look from home. Looks nice, though.

[jebra.livejournal.com]

As you might guess from the shadows, it was close to sundown when she took those shots. This summer, we're planning to do our US-12 drive earlier in the day, so the light will be better. Which may actually make the towers look worse.

[bennys-mum.livejournal.com]

is US-12 a highway?

Are they lighthouses?

Why worse? It will show decay and disrepair, or something?

[mrs-sweetpeach.livejournal.com]

Yes, US 12 is a highway. A two lane highway going through some beautiful hilly countryside.

No, the towers are not lighthouses, they are wooden observation towers built in the 1920s to promote tourism to the area. They have fallen into disrepair and, according to someone who stopped to talk to me when they saw me taking pictures, they are scheduled to be demolished. The area used to have lots of neat tourist traps -- A Mystery Spot, a dinosaur park (now fenced off, or I'd go explore), a (fake) frontier town, and a campground or two.

What with you reading LJ on your blackberry, my scrapbook pages may be too small for you to make out the details, but the towers are missing parts of their siding, some of the windows are boarded up, etc. Here's another page showing just one of the towers.

[bennys-mum.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I see it. IS it historically or architecturally significant? I guess no one wants to bother taking care of it. Are people upset about them being torn down?

[mrs-sweetpeach.livejournal.com]

I don't know how "significant" they are or were. To me, they're a symbol of an earlier, more simple age. I love old roadside attractions and so few are left. Going by the conversation I had with the local who stopped to talk with me, I'm not the only one who will miss them.

On the other hand, even if I won the lottery I don't think I'd want to try to buy and restore them. Not unless I could buy both of the other tourist traps down the road from the towers. I don't think I'd be able to make the towers self-supporting (financially, I mean) and without other draws, I think they lose part of their charm.