Hi cAPS,
How are you today?
I wonder if the following has anything to do with the Porter Field well structures?
June 25, 1998
'Flat' Nebraska Going Vertical
A.P. INDEXES: TOP STORIES | NEWS | SPORTS | BUSINESS | TECHNOLOGY | ENTERTAINMENT
Filed at 4:22 p.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- In flat-as-a-cutting-board Nebraska, where the horizon is broken
only by an occasional stand of trees and a grain silo, some folks have gotten the urge to go
vertical.
They're building a giant archway spanning Interstate 80 in the middle of the state and
drawing up plans for a 610-foot stainless-steel tower resembling a tornado near Omaha.
''We don't have anything that's vertical here,'' said artist Robert Hogenmiller Jr.,
explaining why he is designing Vortex the Tornado Tower, a $35 million contraption that
would use lasers to create the illusion of a spinning twister.
About 175 miles west, construction is set to begin Thursday on the $40 million Platte
River Road Archway Monument, an 80-foot-high, 300-foot-wide arch over the highway
near Kearney.
''This will help break up the long drive across Nebraska,'' said Roger Jasnoch, president
of the Kearney-area Chamber of Commerce. ''You should be able to see it three or four
miles away.''
The monument is intended to commemorate the Platte River Valley's role in America's
westward migration. More than a quarter of a million people trekked the 2,000 miles from
Missouri to the West Coast between 1845 and 1860.
Former Gov. Frank Morrison leads the nonprofit foundation that has been raising money
for the archway.
The Tornado Tower hasn't moved much beyond this week's resolution from the Cass
County Planning Commission saying that a developer should build it. Hogenmiller's
proposal includes a restaurant, museum, theater, and an observation deck with 25-mile
views.
Not everyone is thrilled with plans that run counter to the natural flat order of things.
''That'll really boost tourism,'' deadpanned Eric Wilkinson of Lincoln. ''Come to
Nebraska! See our giant tornado and arch!''
If built, the tower would eclipse Nebraska's tallest buildings. Omaha's Woodmen Tower
at 440 feet and the state Capitol in Lincoln at 400 feet rank as two of the few structures that
scrape Nebraska's sky.
Nebraska flatness inspired Bertram Goodhue when he designed the Capitol, said state
architect Robert Ripley. ''He was taken by the incredible distances that could be seen on
the Plains -- the great expanses,'' he said.
Ripley recalled a jab from a Bostonian who once observed that Nebraska was ''a table top
with trees and grass.''
The retort: ''Yeah, and we didn't have the trees until people moved here.'' |
