Information
Names: Weed Patch, Weedpatch
Location: Brown County State Park
County: Brown (other tower in Brown County is Lilly, which is north of Nashville)
Topo quad: Nashville
Condition: Standing. The cab is not open, but the tower can be climbed up to a point. Easy to reach and park; fun to climb.
Maps of Weed Patch
Above: Nashville topo quad, 1947
Above: Part of a fun old hand-drawn map of Brown County, seen at Brown County State Park
Links about Weed Patch tower
IDNR Brown County State Park map
Indiana structural survey number: 013-445-13012
Data
Latitude: 39.1666233
Longitude: -86.2166096
History of Weed Patch tower
Seems to me that the tower was built in 1927. The 1927 Department of Conservation annual report mentions that the Division of Engineering: “Supervised construction of fire tower at Brown County game reserve.” The 1928 Department of Conservation report says: “An eighty-foot steel tower for the purpose of detecting forest fires was erected in 1927.” The first Hohenberger photo below is attributed to 1927.
The wooden sign currently standing at Weed Patch tower says that it was built in the 1930s.
Brown County State Park opened in 1929. Around that time, part of the current park was originally the Brown County Game Preserve.
Indiana’s SHAARD database entry about the tower has this note: “constructed prior to state park designation”. That supports the fact that it was built before 1929.
Above photos from IU Lilly Library Frank M Hohenberger Photograph Collection. Bookmark for 1927 photo. Bookmark for 1931 photo. Courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
Above: An OI article from November 1979 says that “a fire tower is open, providing an outstanding view of the countryside for many miles around.”
