Built by Mr. Lewis Grubb, with the assistance of his son, Louis Grubb. The design was based on the oil derricks that were very common around Great Bend. See email below.
August 21, 2003,
Thank you for the Website.
...As to the original metal tower: Lou remembers that it took an entire day to set up. This was during the summer of 1955.
Mom and Dad (Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Grubb) acted as chaperones from 1947/48 - 1958. It was Dad that named the Corp. Dad remembers the meeting in 1955 in the band room of the high school when Dad said "Your just a bunch of rebels, sponsored by the Argonne Post." The corp. was the Great Bend Drum and Bugle Corp. before that.
Dad was the property manager for the corp. from 1947-1958. Dad was also the supervisor of Great Bend Recreational Facility in the evenings. When Dad built the tower, he was at the time the supervisor of Building and Grounds Maintenance for the public school system. This is how he was able to use the GBHS welding shop and Agriculture room to build the tower in sections before it was assembled on the practice field.
By the way, the school had a deal with the corp. The school could use the practice field and tower for football practice IF it was not in use by the corp.
Louis Grubb
Webmaster's note: While the tower was still on the ground, a rope would be attached to one side of the tower. The tower was pulled up with a truck and 20-30 kids. The tricky part was to get it to rise slowly. If it went up too fast, momentum could make it fall down the other side. At one time the tower was anchored on one side. Probably to prevent this catastrophe. It sounds very dangerous to me. It probably inspired Glenn Opie, M&M director, to become a lawyer. Just in case..