HELENA — The cab portion of the Helena fire tower has been removed as part of a construction and restoration project to keep the Guardian of the Gulch's history alive.
Craig Marr, parks superintendent for the City of Helena says, “The fire tower has actually been burned itself like three times since it was constructed in 1874 and so it just shows the resilience of the structure and the city itself.”
Dick Anderson Construction began work on the historic Helena fire tower just before Christmas.
The cab of the tower and bell were removed to provide easier access to the legs and support beams and to take the weight off of the structure.
"The restoration is needed because in 2016 there was an arson fire and there are four major legs that hold up the tower and one of those legs was burned pretty significantly and it impacted the integrity of the structure," Marr says.
The reason restoration did not begin until nearly a decade after the damage is due to detailed studies on each piece of the tower and matching species of wood.
The goal is to retain as much of the original material as possible.
"Some of the challenges of this project will be getting the timbers," Marr says. "The new timbers have to be dried to a specific moisture level and that is twelve to fifteen percent, so that they do not warp or be impacted by the weather.”
There will be a delay as construction waits for the properly dried timbers to be processed.
The attention to detail and historical accuracy will allow the tower to continue to be a symbol.
“The goal of this project is to stabilize the fire tower so that it can be up there on the hill well into the future and overlook the city and it is really important part of history to the city of Helena," Marr says.
Dick Anderson Construction was awarded the contract last year.
The project is valued at around $385,000 and work is anticipated to be completed by mid-summer.
