I have an obsession with radio towers. These photos are rather amateurish, but I'm not really concerned my photos being fine art. All but one of these towers are photos of a tower that were several miles north of my old campgrounds in Anadarko. While walking up (or down) the hill to the boys' dorms, I could always spot it off in the distance. I enjoyed camp to some degree, but I was also usually pretty homesick. I've always wondered where this particular tower was. During the day it was just a faint line in the distance. At night, it was a flashing light in the distance.
I've decided to collect pictures of them, as some of them I believe are being razed. I know of 2 in particular that have been razed in the last decade or so. The earliest one I can remember is one that was just north of Wilshire north of Yukon. It is no longer standing. There was also one on the west side of Highway 81 in Grady County in between Minco and Pocassett that is no longer standing. I'm very sorry I missed them, but it's motivated me to take pics of them. Another problem is that while the towers remain, some of the booster drums are being taken off the towers. The booster drums added a great deal to the towers because it gave them an odd shape.
I know of one in eastern Colorado along Highway 287 that looked like a giant wearing Mickey Mouse ears.
On Monday (Memorial Day) I took a drive out to Caddo County to find this tower. On the way down, I saw off in the distance another tower. Unfortunately, the drums had been taken off this tower. I saw another tower in New Mexico on my way out to Las Vegas a couple of summers ago that had its drums taken off. On my way back from Anadarko/Gracemont, I drove east of Hinton along Highway 37 to find this tower. That first picture you see is that particular tower east of Hinton near Methodist Road in western Canadian County. I wasn't able to get close to this tower, thus the reason for the tower being so far in the distance. This was on my way back, but I had to turn around and head back to Hinton as it seemed like I was getting further and further away from where I needed to be. I thought 37 would take me at least to Union City, but the road kept winding southeast instead of due east.
I had some amount of trouble finding my Anadarko/Gracemont Tower (I know its FCC registration number, but I'm just going to leave it out of my blog and just refer to it by the towns it is near). As I drove in on Hwy 281, I saw it off in the distance and pulled over to the side of the road to see if I could get a good "deep distance" shot. The far left photo on the second row is that shot. I continued south, looking for a secondary road to pull off and head west. I had trouble finding a good secondary road that would intersect where the tower was because trees and brushes would block my vision to the tower. I finally found it on a road that was "Closed in 3 miles." I pulled off and took pictures of this tower.
I hope to take more pics of radio towers in the future. I am hoping to take a picture of the Holy Grail of radio towers, the elusive station that lies northeast of Pueblo, Colorado some distance east of Interstate 25. I call this tower the "Begging Dog" tower, and I hope that one day I figure out if the Begging Dog tower is the same tower as the "Boxing Elvis" tower I saw near Pueblo with my family several years ago.
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