Shot Tower Historic Landmark

Rising 120 feet above the Port of Dubuque, this 1856 limestone tower is the only shot tower west of the Mississippi River still standing — a remarkable survivor from the era when molten lead was dropped from its heights to form perfectly spherical ammunition pellets, which cooled as they fell into water below. Built by George W. Rogers & Company, it operated for just two years before being made obsolete by Civil War-era demand for standardized cartridges, yet the tower endured while almost everything around it changed. Today it stands as one of the most photographed landmarks in the Port — a quietly dramatic monument to industrial ingenuity and the raw materials that made Dubuque wealthy.