Harrison Krider in 1973 suggested: “The tower was built about 1813. The tower was built so that the owner could see the location of the opposite corner of his property from his house. He used his slaves to do this. The tower builder died about 1841. His children disposed of the property by sale and a gift to the church about 1886.” Slight problem, a church never owned the property.
William Etchberger and the late Harry Lentz both agreed that a hollow stack sat at both the Gold Mine and Rausch Gap used in the coal mining operations. These stacks were torn down after the coal mines died out. Etchberger recalls hearing that the stone was hauled away to build homes in the Ellendale Forge area in Dauphin County.
D. O. Davies in 1973 thought that the stack was actually a blast furnace used to smelt pig iron for making long rifles. Of course 1973 was over three decades ago. Back then the most probable idea was actually Harrison Krider’s observation tower.
Ideas began to change over the years. By 1984, J. Peter Wilshusen suggested that the tower was used as ventilation for the both a mine and a steam engine that was placed to the left of the tower, which was soon to become the most probable reasoning of the time.
As of 2007, the explianation has changed again. My own explaination is that the tower was used as ventilation for a steam engine, used to run an incline plane, which carried coal down the mountainside to the coal breaker and train cars. Piers can still be found going down the mountainside from the original incline plane, which sat beneath the tower. The incline plane was built in 1851. However, by the time the incline plane had finally finished its life, a 276 foot deep mine shaft sat between the stone tower and incline. The mine headwork can still be seen today.
Maurice J. Forrester Jr. once wrote in a 1974 Sierra Club article: “It is, however, a magnificent example of the stonemason’s art, evoking unvarying admiration in the occasional hiker who pass that way. But slowly and relentlessly the passing seasons are taking their toll. Each year sees one or two more stones dislodged from their places and fallen to the ground. Inevitably, the day will come when the tower is nothing more than a jumbled pile of stones on top of the mountain.”
The tower stands proudly atop the mountain amongst the trees and underbrush, at the end of the Stone Tower Trail (not advisable for young children). The traveler receives its first glimpse of history from the back of the tower where rebars still protrude from its side foundation. The tower itself stands approximately 35 to 40 feet in the air in the 1970s, and 10 feet at the base when Hikin’ Henry Knauberdecided to scale its rocky side (then cut down the tree he used to do it so not to give the Boy Scouts any bad ideas). Either for his findings or just natural curosity Henry made the newspaper in 1973, pictured here. His discovery led to the many ideas the “Mystery Tower” could have been. To this day the exact use is unknown. Yet some of the ideas include: