The iconic Peace Tower at the International Peace Garden is being demolished.

Crews got down to work on Wednesday working to dismantle the first of four concrete columns and the project is expected to take about two weeks to complete.

The tower began crumbling several years ago and it was determined fixing the problem wasn't possible and bringing down the structure was approved by the board of directors.

"We have a huge crane with a hydraulic claw and it is slowly ripping the 120 foot columns down and they are working from the top and working down," said Peace Garden CEO Garry Enns.

The Peace Tower was erected at the Peace Garden, south of Boissevain, back in the early 1980's and was a popular spot with visitors to the International Peace Garden. “I was talking with a staff person at the Music Camp on site hear at the Garden and said you should go have a look at the demolition and they teared up and didn't want to watch it come down.”

Enns added there will be a lot of concrete and they have a location on their grounds where the debris will be buried.

Moving forward the Peace Garden board is committed to building a new tower but Garry Enns says a time frame isn't in place for that next step.

"Money is the big issue and we have some funding in place but we need to raise a lot of money to get a new tower built," said Enns.

GPP Architecture firms's "Interwoven" was elected the winning submission out of a field of six entries to the Peace Garden Tower Ideas Competition.

He added the existing site will be seeded over and fixed up for this summer and the location for a new tower hasn't been decided. It could still go back up where the old tower stood.

Barricades are up around the tower site and Garry Enns says people can come out and watch the demolition but they won 't be allowed past the barricades for safety reasons.

A firm out of North Dakota has the contract to demolish the tower and it will cost $222,000.

 

Peace Garden concept tower