Alright, alright, alright: Restoration will ensure youths can party at the moon tower for years to come
Enertech Resources specializes in telecom tower site development and construction, but its crews are currently working on a series of very special towers that play a significant role in the colorful history of Austin, Texas.
Austin, the state’s capital, is home to a series of 17 moonlight towers, which were erected between 1894 and 1895 by the Fort Wayne Electric Company out of Indiana. The towers were used, having previously provided lighting in Detroit.
There were originally 31 towers, but that number was winnowed down over the years through development and, in one case, a car accident.
“Enertech has a contract with the city of Austin … to inspect, maintain and restore the moonlight towers,” Dale Shumaker, Enertech’s VP of site design and implementation, said in an interview.
This week Shumaker and company were inspecting a moonlight tower just down the street from the RCR Wireless News headquarters in east Austin.
The towers are protected by the Texas Historical Commission and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
For Enertech, that means repairs need to be made with an eye on historical accuracy; pieces that have to be replaced are produced using a method called green sand casting, which is how the towers were originally made.
Shumaker said Enertech is charged with inspecting guy wires and anchors, turnbuckles, structural steel and lighting for signs of corrosion, rust or bent members.
“All of the pieces are unique,” he said. “We have to replace them with like kinds.” He added that the towers are “very dear to the people of Austin.”
Shumaker even noted the preeminent pop culture reference to the moonlight towers.
That came in Richard Linklater’s 1993 film “Dazed and Confused,” which is set in Austin; Matthew McConaughey’s character tells a young lady: “There’s a new fiesta in the making, as we speak, down at the moon tower. Full kegs, everybody’s gonna be there. You oughta go.”
Plaques located on the towers read: “This is one of 17 that remain out of 31 towers erected 1894-95 and in continuous use since. Their carbon arc lights then illuminated the entire city. Now mercury vapor lamps provide beacons for many miles on roads and airway, from dusk to dawn. Austin is said to be unique in the dramatic method of lighting.”
Austin’s moonlight towers are the only working examples worldwide.
