Bilby tower


A Bilby tower is a type of steel survey tower used by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1927 to 1984. It is named after Jasper S. Bilby who designed it in 1926. In 1927, Herbert Hoover, the then Secretary of Commerce commended Bilby's tower "for its cost and time efficiency" and cited the surveyor's service as "essential to the United States government".

Features

The Bilby tower has two unconnected parts – an internal tower for mounting surveying instruments and an external tower for surveyors. It was portable, reusable and quick to assemble and dismantle. Its quick erection made it possible to conduct surveying rapidly.

The last Bilby tower

The last remaining tower at St. Charles Parish, Louisiana was dismantled by the Surveyors Historical Society in 2012 and re-erected in 2013 at the Osgood Trails Park in Osgood, Indiana, the birth town of Bilby.