Frenchman's Tower - Palo Alto, CA
Posted by: 
saopaulo1
N 37° 23.766 W 122° 09.716
10S E 574180 N 4139144
A mysterious tower in Palo Alto.
Waymark Code: WM934D
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 06/21/2010
Views: 17
Peter Coutts arrived in Mayfield (now Palo Alto) in 1874 with his family. The mysterious man built the tower and the other building on his farm. They say the tower was used as a reservoir. Today it sits on private property, though it can be viewed and approached from Old Page Mill Road (be careful with the barbed wire that hugs the tower). In the past, the towers windows have been bricked up.
Eventually Monsieur Coutts left the town as mysteriously as he came. This lead to more rumors by the towns people.
Not much is known about the structure, and no one know who truly was Coutts. Some say he was really the newspaper publisher Paulin Caperon , who was banished during The Franco-Prussian War.
Adding to the weirdness, in the 1970s, they say the daughter of the Stanford Athletics Director was found there after being kidnapped.
Visit Instructions:
Please provide another photo of the location. You don't have to be in there shot, but you can. The photo requirement is to discourage any armchair visiting.