The pillars at County Road and Sixth Street are nubs of their former selves after some structural defects were discovered while trying to re-stucco them. Their last reconstruction was a 1996 Eagle Scout project by Darren Keele.
The twin pillars that guarded the western entrance to Minden since 1911 were taken down by the town on Tuesday.
What was to be a project to re-stucco them became something else once workers found out that the interior structure was crumbling.
The pillars were constructed in 1911 with two large lights to designate the entrance of the town at 6th Street and County Road five years before what would be Highway 395 extended into the county seat, according to Wynne Maul’s history of the town.
Time was not kind to the portals and in 1996 Boy Scout Darren Keele decided they would be a good Eagle Scout project.
Keele credited his father George for the idea, according to a story written by R-C Community Editor Joyce Hollister.
“My dad said it was a weekend job,” Darren told The R-C. “Well six months and 218 hours later …”
Keele credited 75 volunteers who helped out with the project.
According to the story, Sen. Lawrence Jacobsen had rescued the bases of the lights from the pillars where they’d been hanging by the broken wires. While the old bases were used, the project had to obtain new globes.
As part of the project the tops of the old pillars were removed and replaced with Styrofoam caps.
Once the pillars were filled and layers of fiberglass and concrete were added, according to the story.
One challenge was finding the old electrical wire and installing a vault for the new wire and photocell.
The town is working on rebuilding the pillars, a spokeswoman said.
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