By Dennis Stillings 

Everyone knows the use of the useful,
but nobody knows the use of the useless.
                                —Zhuangzi

When I was a kid in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, the Interstate didn’t exist yet (if my younger readers can imagine such a thing). U.S. Highway 10 was the main road to get from Valley City to Fargo. In those days, the rough condition of the highway combined with the risk of bad weather and the primitive rubber of the tires meant trips to Fargo were an event, something special to be carefully planned and seldom undertaken. My family got there a couple of times a year, which was probably about average for most Valley Citians at that time.
    The trip wasn’t very exciting most of the way—pretty monotonous really—but at Casselton my dad sped under a railroad viaduct, drove up a hill for a block or so, and then we saw it—the magnificent Can Tower of Casselton! The Tower is about 50 feet tall and consists of hundreds of empty oil cans bound together with chicken wire into a Christmas tree-shaped cone. It is some 75 years old, its construction having been initiated in 1933 by Max Taubert, who owned and operated a 24-hour Sinclair service station there.   
    As I think back on a sight that was so magical to me as a 10-year-old, I find it hard to believe that there are those who find the Can Tower ugly or useless. When I hear someone speak of getting rid of it because it’s old, ugly, useless, and broad in the bottom, I take it a bit personally…maybe some of my readers will feel the same way. It sure didn’t seem ugly to me then, and it doesn’t seem so now. I wonder if those who are so ready to consign it to oblivion wish to do so because they didn’t experience the magic of the Can Tower as children. May they be spared from having their own memories, their own magical past hauled off to the landfill!
    The current plan is to remove the Can Tower from the Loegering Manufacturing Company’s property by May 29. Loegering president Kurt Bollman has said of the tower, “Regardless of what you want to call it, it is a pile of garbage. Aesthetically, it’s not something we want to have around.”
    Judging on the basis of aesthetic merit, I can say with confidence that if I had to make a choice between the Loegering Manufacturing building and the Can Tower, the Can Tower would win, no contest. The aesthetics of the Tower compare quite favorably with those of the Loegering building, which doesn’t even have enough character to be ugly. (And if Loegering is so concerned about the look of the property, what about all those big ugly trash hampers that are clustered around the base of the Tower—will those be taken away, too?  I smell hypocrisy.)  In any case, anyone in authority at Loegering should exercise caution when holding forth on the subject of aesthetics.
    When we drove out to Casselton last week to renew our acquaintance with the old monument, my wife Cathryn observed that the Tower would look splendid decked out lavishly for Christmas, and that it really deserved to have a public skating rink constructed around its base. This could be done without actually tearing down the Loegering building.
    The Can Tower is both humble and noble. It is the nesting place of dozens of sparrows—common birds in common cans. The Tower is a true North Dakotan in its power to endure. It faced an evil wind—a tornado in the mid-’70s—and emerged from it battle bent, but not broken. It is made of “tin cans” and stands as an icon and a memorial for all the builders of tin buildings and purveyors of steel siding. The Tower points to heaven, reminding us of Christmas, of the essential worth of the despised and rejected, of “becoming as little children”—and thus having a child’s saving sense of humor.
    For additional information on the Can Tower of Casselton, see Cliff Naylor’ and Monica Hannan’s Dakota Day Trips: Discovering North Dakota’s Hidden Treasures (Bismarck: North Dakota Tourism Dept., 1999). There is an excellent website on the Can Tower at http://www.realnd.com/casseltoncanpileindex.htm
    News article at: http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=196124&section=news
    Tom Isern story on the Can Pile at: http://www.prairiepublic.org/programs/plainsfolk/transcripts/canpile.jsp

Dennis Stillings’ column appears on occasional Fridays. Reach him via e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it