Visiting the Shot Tower and Wytheville, Virginia

​Today we toured the Shot Tower. The tower was used to make lead shot for guns starting in 1807.  They could make small bird shot and rifle shot by pouring molten lead into sieves of different sizes. The lead, falling 150 feet from the top of the tower then down through a shaft in the hillside, cooled before reaching a large kettle of water at the bottom. We climbed steep stairs to the top of the tower where the wood floor at the top was original from over 200 years ago.

​After that we drove to Wytheville to visit the local museums.  They were interesting. One had exhibits on the civil war and the horrible Polio outbreak in the 1950's which infected most of the children of the area. 

​There was a home of the local doctor that survived the war, a homestead, and a gas station used during the time when Hwy 21 was the primary Great Lakes to Florida highway for the country prior to the existence of the interstate system.  I have very few pictures because they have a rule against photos being taken.