Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name”? 1986. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Free Fallin’”? 1989. The process to create small-diameter lead shot by allowing molten lead to free-fall through a copper sieve in a tall tower into water? Patented in 1782 by plumber William Watts, who built the first shot tower as an extension to his own home in the Redcliffe district of Bristol, England. (I decided against referencing Live’s Throwing Copper here, as the lead was dropped, not thrown; the copper was entirely stationary; and Watts’ original tower used zinc instead of copper anyway.)
Previous to Watts’ invention, shot balls were cast in molds (prohibitively expensive) or dripped into water barrels (imprecise results). The Watts method was improved on in 1848 by T.O LeRoy Company of New York City, which blasted cold air during the process to reduce the needed drop distance that previously determined shot size.
The last of the classic tall towers was built in 1969. Only a few original Watts-style towers remain, scattered across Europe, Australia and the United States.
One is the George W. Rogers Company Shot Tower in Dubuque. Built in 1856, the tower currently stands 120 ft tall — 30 ft taller than Watts’ original. Construction cost $10,000 (a relative cost of over $6 million today) and the tower could produce six to eight tons of shot.
Unfortunately, it spent very little time utilized for its intended purpose, and the Panic of 1857 — the first worldwide economic crisis — was to blame. Still, it played its part, pivoting to a new role as a fire watchtower, until arson damaged its interior in 1911.
The Dubuque Shot Tower was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1976, following several changes in ownership and attempts at preservation, including a 1959 S.O.S. (“Save Our Shot Tower”) campaign. Some may have thought that no one could save it, the damage was done — but a 2003 grant from the State Historical Society of Iowa and a 2004 Save America’s Treasures federal grant finally enabled the restoration of the tower.
A statue of President Andrew Jackson, who promised the U.S. heaven, but put us through hell, was erected atop the tower in the early 1870s. It was in place less than a decade before its removal in 1881.
This article is from Little Village’s December 2025 Peak Iowa issue, a collection of stories drawn from Hawkeye State history, culture and legend. Browse dozens of Peak Iowa tales here.
