Whitewater skyline changes. UWW chimney gone.

Steve Watson writes, “August 17th while on my daily bike ride, I noticed some framework on top of the chimney, at the UWW power/heating plant. Then on the 25th I saw the platform, and discovered the chimney was being removed. The heating plant construction began in 1962 and came online in 1964. It used coal fired boilers and needed a tall chimney to remove the smoke. It was 174 or maybe 180 feet tall.
I remember when it was being built. On the Fourth of July a large flag would be hanging up there. Then at Christmas a lighted tree.

The chimney was in use till 1997, when UWW started getting steam supplied from the new power plant on County trunk U. Then UWW updated the plant to natural gas, so
a tall chimney is no longer needed. After 57 years, tear down began. The crews removed about 6 feet per day by pushing it down inside the chimney. A clean out opening at the base allowed them to put it in a dumpster and hauled away.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Our thanks to Steve Watson for these very interesting time sequence photos.

— Our Readers Share: We hope that you might have something that you’d be willing to share.  Anything that’s been created by someone else should, of course, be credited, and you should ask their permission if you’re able. We cannot post copyrighted material without permission. We can’t guarantee that we’ll have space for all submissions, and contributions will be subject to editorial board approval. The one definite exclusion is anything politically oriented. We will assume that you’re willing for us to include your name as the submitter unless you indicate that you prefer to remain anonymous. Send to whitewaterbanner@gmail.com or click on “submit a story” near the top right of our homepage.  Thanks for thinking about this!