Goat Towers Around The World
Important Note: Please ignore this post and see the updated post at this link. The updated post has more accurate information and includes 3 more towers.
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It may sound strange but three towers exist around the World for the goats to climb up and down the sloping ramp.
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It may sound strange but three towers exist around the World for the goats to climb up and down the sloping ramp.
- Goat Tower, Fairview Cheese & Wine farm, Paarl, South Africa
- Goat Tower, Findlay, Illinios, USA (aka "Tower of Baaa")
- Goat Tower, Ekeby Farm, Moss, Norway
Goats are extremely curious, are very coordinated and can climb and hold their balance in the most precarious places.
The original goat tower was built in 1981 by Charles Back at the Fairview Wine and Cheese Estate in Paarl, South Africa. The basic purpose was to create an icon and a piece of curiosity for their visitors. As a matter of fact the tower is now a brand mark for their wine and cheese. This tower was subsequently replicated at Ekeby Farm, Norway and in Findlay, Illinois where it is popularly known as "Tower of Baaa".
A brief description and couple of images of each of these towers is given below;
Goat Tower, Fairview Cheese & Wine farm, Paarl, South Africa
This is the original Goat Tower and is a brain child of Fairview Farm's owner Charles Back, who while working on the farm in the early 1980’s, came up with the idea of a landmark, to be a symbol of the estate. Completed in 1981 tower has since become a logo/trademark of their products and visitors to the farm rarely leave without a snapshot of the tower and its resident goats.
Image from Flickr is by gconard
Image from Flickr is by valkyrieh116
View location in Google Maps and Street View.
2. Goat Tower, Findlay, Illinios, USA
The idea for this Goat Tower came to the owner of the goat farm David Johnson after he read about the Fairview Goat Tower in some magazine and he decided to make a similar tower at his estate farm. Built in 1998 it is locally known as the "Tower of Baaa" and is reportedly highest of the three towers with a height of 9.5 metres and diameter of about 2.1 metres. Its 276 spiral shaped concrete steps allow the goats to climb up and down with ease passing each other on the ramp.
Image from Panoramio is by dennisdw1
Image from dalejtravis.com is by Dale Travis
View location in Google Maps and Street View
3. Goat Tower, Ekeby Farm, Moss, Norway
This tower was built by Finn-Erik Blakstad, who while doing his Masters-in-Law in South Africa had seen the Fairview Goat Tower and was very fascinated with it. On returning to Norway he took up the farm business of his parents and after obtaining permission from the Charles Back, owner of Fairview Wine and Cheese Estate in Paarl, South Africa made an exact replica of the original. He even invited Charles and his wife Diane for the official opening of the tower in 2007.
Here also the tower besides keeping the goats busy and happy serves as an advert for his restaurant which is located at the goat farm. The restaurant also provides facilities for conferences and business groups as well.
Image from Panoramio is by ekeby
Image from Panoramio is by ekeby
View location in Google Maps
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Download .kmz file to view all the three towers in Google Earth.
3 comments:
OK perhaps not as exotic or rare but I was bemused by all the obelisks that I found on http://www.thegreatnorthwalk.com/obelisks. There seems to be an associated armchair travel book associated with the Great North Walk too.
Now that Street View is available in South Africa, including special coverage of several wineries, there is a wonderful view of the original Goat Tower at Fairview Cheese & Wine.
Thank you for update on Google Street View - I fully agree it gives a very nice view of the Goat Tower. I will include the link in my original post.
Thanks once again.
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