A small water tower and large bulk heads

Jacksonville. NC.

Mel took this obscure water tower picture beccause this is a bulk plant (gas tanks) and she climbs on top of these for her job. Pretty crazy!

Article from Dorothea

My buddy from Keep Durham Beautiful emailed me this article she found about water towers. I think I need to go on a road trip!

Waterfalls and Watertowers - August 18-20, 206

Owen and I went to Brevard a few weekends ago to do a waterfall tour with Bob from the Pisgah Forest Institute. We didn't get any watertower pictures on the way there for 2 reasons - 1) I have almost every water tower picture for towns near I-40 west and 2) Mountain towns just don't seem to have water towers. I don't know why, but if someone could answer that for me I would really appreciate it.

However, we got off I-40 and entered Brevard when low and behold there were 5 water towers behind our Holiday Inn Express. We couldn't believe it. It was destiny.


Brevard. NC.

Before leaving town we explored this old plant behind our hotel and took lots of pictures. Most of the water towers do not have anything on them but one has a big G and one has a big E.







We finally raised the interest of a security guard so I took that opportunity to ask her lots of questions. She is from Brevard and this plant is owned by Ecusta. It closed down about 5 years ago. They used to make cigarette paper here. She said when it closed it really hurt the town. A few of buildings have been leased by the humane society and a few Ecusta employees still work there. Check out this newspaper article for some juicy details.

When I told her about my hobby she laughed and said well "it takes a lot of water to make cigarette paper". I then asked her why the town of Brevard doesn't have a water tower and she didn't know.


About the waterfall tour - We happened upon this out of the way water fall so our tour guide decided to call it Kelley's Cascades.




















Burlington. NC.

I did ask Owen to stop once on the return trip to get this picture of this brand new water tower in Burlington.

Word-of-Mouth does work

Newnan. GA.

During my KAB presentation in Asheville, I asked folks to send me their water tower pictures from across the US. It worked.

This was submitted by Cynthia Gill-Wall , the director of Keep Newnan Beautiful.

She says "We are quite proud of [our water tower] and keep it looking quite nice, as you see. We have 2 other towers in the area that you would like. One of them is a giant golf
ball, so I know you'll like it." I can't wait to see that one!

Help save our water tower - Gerlach NV

Trina is visiting her boyfriend in NV.

Gerlach. NV.

Not only does she have good pictures but a good story! Gerlach is in northern Nevada, the last town before I-80 becomes dirt.














"Help save our watertower". I wonder what the story is behind that?












Just beyond Gerlach is the Black Rock Desert, where the Burning Man festival is every year. It is sort of a pagan gathering of people in the desert for a week. After the week is over, they burn the town that they set up for the festival.

Melanie's Work Submission

Lincolnton. NC.

Melanie has been working hard traveling all over the state to make sure our gas stations are safe. Check out her water tower submissions!




Shelby. NC.

Find out more about Shelby here.







Carteret County. NC.

Trina also submitted this water tower picture. It seems that everyone went to Beaufort in July.

Work Trip #4 - Go West - August 1-4, 2006

Iredell County. NC.

My first stop was Iredell County (Statesville) to meet with Keep Iredell Beautiful coordinator, Carla Parks. I love this water "tank"!




Morganton. NC.

Then I headed to Rutherford County to meet with their SWEEP group. I found this water tank at the intersection of 40 and 64. The building says Capri Metal Fabricators but the tank says Wamsutta Knitting Mills. What an interesting story about Wamsutta. Read this link for more interesting stuff.


While in Rutherfordton I visited the Kid Senses Children's Museum there and saw how they have used the Recycle Guys campaign. Mom - Check out their web page. You would like this place.




The ultimate reason for the trip was to do a presentation about Social Marketing at the Keep America Beautiful conference in Asheville. Check out the presentation here. In the presentation, I take folks on a virtual tour of NC via water towers. While doing some research on water towers I found these cool sites -
Way Marking
Trucker Mike


Connelly Springs, NC.

On the way back to Raleigh I took this picture. I think I was in Connelly Springs?










Greensboro. NC.

I stopped in Greensboro to eat fast food on the way home and searched for this new water tower that I could see from I-40.