SHOT TOWER, junction of River and Tower Sts., was erected in 1855, for molding lead shot. The lead was melted and dropped through a screen at the top of the tower, thus forming balls which cooled as they fell and solidified as they dropped into water at the base. It was afterward used by the Standard Lumber Company as a watch tower until it was gutted by a disastrous fire in 1911. Smoke from underground fires, caused by spontaneous combustion, often issues from the earth, which covers the sawdust-filled marshes in the vicinity of the old tower. Excerpt was from "Iowa: A Guide to the Hawkeye State", 1938, page 254.
The Shot Tower was built in 1855. Molten lead was poured from the top of the tower, through seives to form the shot into its various sizes, and then it landed in a tank of water at the bottom.
Lead from nearby mines was shipped to St. Louis where most of the lead shot used in the midwest was produced. This shot tower was built in an attempt to break the St. Louis monopoly. St. Louis then cut it's prices to below production cost. The Dubuque Shot Tower's business was destroyed in 3 years. A later attempt to restart the business resulted in the St. Louis company purchasing the shot tower and then they abandoned it.
The shot tower was used as a fire watchtower for The Standard Lumber Company from the early 1880's until 1911 when a fire destroyed the lumber yard. It stood deserted from 1911 to 1959 when the Dubuque County Historical Society restored the stone and brick tower. The 16-foot high roofed "house" that originally sat on top of the tower was not replaced.
The Shot Tower stands 122 ft high. The width of each side at the base is 19 ft, and at the top the width is 12 ft. The lower portion of the tower is locally quarried Dolomite (Limestone). It extends upwards 83 feet. The remaining 38 ft is brick masonry.