Weekend Wonder - Grafenwoehr Water Tower

Today Roll's Cub Scout group met at the infamous Graf Water Tower. We have been here now almost six years and before today had never stepped foot inside the tower. It is quite impressive. This tower sits central to the military post.

In 1907 Bavarian Prince Luitpold directed the establishment of a training area at Grafenwoehr. From 1909 - 1911 craftsman from all over Bavaria were brought to Grafenwoehr to build the water tower and the original post. From 1910 - 1999 it served as the primary means of delivering drinking water from local wells on post to the kaserne and the field camps. From June 1999 to present day the town of Grafenwoehr supplies water to the main post. The water tower continue to supply water to the field camps as the Grafenwoehr city water systems does not have the pressure needed to push the water that far. The tower has served as a Boy Scout hut, the Post Fire Department radio relay, the AFN (Armed Forces Network) transmitter site, and a parade reviewing stand for the Bavarian royalty among other things. We were informed that many dollars went into reinforcing the walls to hold two conference rooms within in the tower. One is a pretty fancy and up-to-date with all necessities. Rock stated upon entering the fancy conference room "This room smells like Grandpa's car!" The room does have a lot of leather.

The Tower has ten floors (including the attic and basement) and is 137 feet high. There are 2 water tanks with a total capacity of 55,723 gallons of water. Most of the water pipes are original. It is divided into three distinct regions. The first has 68 hand-cut stone steps that climb from the front door to the fifth floor landing. We could see where the stone cutters wrote number with chalk or charcoal on the back of the stones as an assembly guide for the builders. The next section has an 80-step stone spiral staircase that reaches from the fifth floor to mid-way up the ninth floor. The last section of the tower starts with a metal staircase that leads to the attic room that is the top of the water tower. There are several windows to look out as you climb and today's view was spectacular!

When we reached the top we found that the flies nest there. It wasn't terrible but Roll found it really easy to catch them. We did keep several alive in a bag that I happened to have handy. This sounds horrible but I still have that spider in my classroom and I felt it against what I am teaching the students to let it starve to death and I am still to afraid to let it go. It would die outside anyhow. This sounds incredibly crazy as I write this but I have found that although I am still fearful of them, I do find them fascinating and the whole experience has been somewhat therapeutic.