Shot Tower, Industrial heritage site in Dubuque, Iowa, United States.
Shot Tower is a stone and brick tower on Commercial Street in Dubuque, Iowa, built to produce lead ammunition by dropping molten lead from height. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as one of the surviving examples of this type of industrial structure in the United States.
The tower was built in 1856 by George W. Rogers & Company to supply the growing demand for lead shot in the mid-19th century. By 1862, the Chadburne company had taken over operations as competition in the trade grew.
The tower stands close to the Mississippi riverfront and remains a visible landmark in the Dubuque cityscape today. Its layers of dolomite stone and red brick show what industrial construction looked like in this part of the Midwest during the 1800s.
The tower is on Commercial Street and easy to reach on foot from the Riverwalk area. Information panels outside the building explain how the shot-making process worked, so a short stop is enough to take in the site.
Between 1872 and 1881, an equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson stood on top of the tower before the structure was converted into a fire observation post. Placing a monumental statue on top of an industrial chimney-like tower was unusual and has no known parallel in the country.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
