Fort Hayes Shot Tower - Columbus, OH - Shot Towers on Waymarking.com

Fort Hayes
(Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center)
(1863 - 1960's/present), Columbus
Construction of the initial post was completed in 1865. First known as Columbus Arsenal until 1875, then as Columbus Barracks until 1922, used for recruit training. The post was expanded in 1908 with new barracks, Officers' quarters, and a hospital. A portion of the base is still used by the state National Guard and Army Reserves. Located at Cleveland Ave. and Buckingham Street. A shot tower (1864) remains, one of only five such structures left standing in the entire country. The others are located in Baltimore, MD, Wytheville, VA, Spring Green, WI, and Dubuque, IA. Four original buildings, including the Shot Tower, are now part of the Fort Hayes MEC, a public alternative magnet high school since 1976.

From the Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center website: "The first building at Fort Hayes was completed in 1864 and is known as the "Shot Tower," deriving its name from the days when it was used as a structure for making shot. In this building, molten iron, lead and other metals were taken to the top of the tower on a conveyor belt, dropped through a funnel, and as they fell in vats of ice water on the ground level, they solidified into perfect cannon balls and other types of shot which were used during the Civil War. The "Shot Tower" was known as Building #62."

Some claim that this structure was never actually used as a shot tower claiming that the floors in the tower would block shot from being poured (visit link). However, we went inside the structure and there are no floors that would block the pouring of shot. There was a stairway running around the edges of the tower, but the center of the tower was open from top to bottom. We have listed the shot production start date as the year the shot tower was constructed and the end date as 1908 when renovations were made to the Fort, although we are not actually certain of the end production date.