Journey of a Jump Tower

Stories from the historic Siskiyou Smokejumper Base, Cave Junction, Oregon

A radio tower in the Siskiyou Mountains began an unusual journey when a team of smokejumpers arrived in 1952 to disassemble and move it to the Siskiyou Smokejumper Base near Cave Junction.

The plan was to use the tower to make a training device called a shock or jump tower. Trainees would climb to a platform where a rope was tied to a special harness. They jumped off the platform and fell for a short distance before the rope stopped them abruptly in a way that mimicked the shock of an opening parachute. This training was crucial to learning the important procedures they would follow when making an actual jump from an airplane.

The tower was in use for about ten years and was replaced by a larger jump tower with other features that did a better job of mimicking an actual parachute jump and landing.

In the 1970s the old tower was disassembled and moved to a ranch on West Side Road near Cave Junction where it was converted into a homemade windmill. You can see the tower today, with its red tipped wind vanes, peeking out from a grove of trees about a mile from Highway 199.

Radio tower before disassembly. Location undetermined.

Reassembling radio tower next to old jump tower

Practice jump tower completed.

Tower with a modified wind tunnel.

Tower modified into a windmill.

Sources: Gary Buck, Interview with a smokejumper at Siskiyou Smokejumper Base

Photos: Siskiyou Smokejumper Base photo collection.

Story by Roger Brandt

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