Heublein Tower beacon in Simsbury to light up the night once again
, 2023-05-14 04:04:49,
SIMSBURY — Let there be light. Or at least a light.
That was the goal of the Friends of Heublein Tower when they decided to embark on a plan to re-light the tower’s beacon, which had gone dark in 2015.
For Jay Willerup, president of the group, it seemed like an easy enough task, even though it required a 165-foot climb up rickety wooden ladders to the tower’s cupola, where the beacon sat, mounted upside down from its ceiling.
Willerup made the climb, armed with two large light bulbs, stood inside the cupola, stretched to unscrewed the wing nut holding the housing closed and was promptly hosed by water pouring out of it.
“I climbed down and told the park supervisor ‘I’m not doing that again,'” he recalled last week.
That started the group on a capital campaign to raise money to replace and improve the ladder and beacon system that was in place since the state purchased the land in 1965, including the tower, built in 1914, and converted it into a state park.
That project, which includes a new fixture and wiring, smaller streamlined LED lights designed to last 20 years, metal ladders and a dusk to dawn sensor to control the beacon’s illumination, has been completed. A celebration highlighted by the beacon re-lighting sometime between 8 and 8:30 p.m. will be held Saturday, May 20th, from noon to 10 p.m. at the Talcott Mountain Collaborative, 140 Nod Road. The party will include food trucks, drinks, live music, a disc golf tournament and laser light show. Suggested donation is $10 for anyone 18 and older.
For Willerup and others who live in the area, the lighting of the beacon is more than a warning to low-flying aircraft or something pretty to look at.
“When we see it we know we are home, or we’re close to home,” he said.
Popular hiking destination
Although there are no specific events related to the re-lighting scheduled for the grounds around the tower, which sits about 1,000 feet above the Farmington River Valley and requires a 1.25 mile hike from the entrance to Talcott Mountain State Park, Willerup and others are proud of the park’s popularity and history.
The park sees about 250,000 visitors annually and, in 2019, Willerup said, the guest sign-in book recorded visitors from all 50 states and 48 countries.
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