[Ron61]

Jay,

The old tail tower used to be higher than the dam and it was used for pouring the concrete. They had huge cranes that traveled on rails that were way back on the mountain with cables that ran to the tower. They would hook the buckets to the cables and the cranes would then run them out to which ever pour they were doing and lower them down to be busted. They used to use them on several of the larger dams, and then once the dam is finished they just cut them off and leave the steel laying at the bottom. It is hard to tell from the picture, but that tower was once well over 200' high. That is the last of the cross braces that was in it, so you know the lake is way down as this is the first time that one has seen light since the dam was finished in 1947 I believe it was. It is hard to tell from the pictures, but the top of the remaining legs are about 30 to 35' above the water.

Ron