The landmark has been through 117 Iowa winters, and is featured on the logo for Fort Dodge’s celebration of 150 years as a chartered city.

But, as years ticked away, there’s been some significant damage both to the copper dome and to the wooden structure beneath it.

Fortunately, engineers who did a thorough examination of the tower found the steel structure itself is sound; however, it’s now time to start talks about what can be done to fix the rest of it.

“They initially thought we had a structural problem,” said Project Engineer Paul Jacobson, with Snyder and Associates. “We went up and looked, and the structure itself is fairly solid. … The steel portion of this is pretty good, and obviously the wood isn’t.”

-Submitted photo
An image from a survey and study of the Webster County Courthouse’s clock tower shows damage and a previous repair up close.

The Shuck Britson engineering firm, a part of the Snyder group, along with OPN Architects, was hired by the Webster County Board of Supervisors to examine the tower in late 2018.

From Dec. 3 to Dec. 7, 2018, crews went up in a crane basket to get an up-close view of the outside, covering the basket’s corners with pool noodles as bumpers.

“This allowed for actual hands-on observation that contributed a great deal to the assessment,” the firm wrote in a 51-page report completed on Jan. 21, 2019.

Metal beams throughout the four-story tower provide its structure, Jacobson said. Wood is attached to the steel, and then the copper is fastened to the wood.

“The copper somewhere along the line started leaking, which led to the wood rotting, and once the wood rotted there’s no more connections,” he said.

-Submitted photo
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Webster County Courthouse was surrounded by what appear to be dirt streets.

This could cause serious problems down the line.

“It’s going to accelerate, the deterioration,” Jacobson said. “Once wood starts rotting, it continues to speed up its demise.”

Not only did crews examine the tower with a crane, OPN’s drone was used to take high resolution photos from all around the outside of the tower. Crews examined the inside and took pictures, as well. A 3-D laser scanning system was also used to analyze the tower, and a 3-D digital model was created using observations and an original drawing of the courthouse.

Over the exterior structure the crews’ observations included:

• Fasteners that were rusting, nails that were popping out;

-Submitted photo
In a photo probably taken from the roof of the Sears building, the Webster County Courthouse is seen on a long-ago afternoon. The cars might suggest shortly after World War II.

• Sheet metal replacement with both re-purposed and new copper patches;

• Architectural details that were dented, damaged or missing;

• Copper sheets that had stretched, torn or had holes from impacts or missing fasteners;

• Aluminum clock face damage.

What happens now?

Officials have taken no action yet, but the engineers have made some recommendations.

The first steps will be to talk with the public, Webster County Supervisor Nick Carlson said.

“We’re still waiting to get more information from the engineering firm, and then we’ll have a public meeting,” he said.

“We’ll need to have several public hearings, to show people what we want to do,” said Supervisor Keith Dencklau.

The recommendation is to restore the copper surface using patches in places, not covering the tower with all-new copper.

The replacement copper will be aged to give it the green “patina” similar to the look of the old copper, but it won’t be an exact match for a few years, Supervisor Mark Campbell said.

The engineers also recommended modifying the interior of the tower to meet fire code and make the access ladder safer.

A key part of the restoration, according to the engineer’s report, will be installation of a water barrier underneath the copper skin.

Before, the copper was the only waterproofing element, the report said, but as it came loose, water was able to leak inside.

Now, a continuous plastic membrane can be installed as a water barrier between the copper and the wood, leaving most levels of the tower dry. The top level is open to the air, so that the bell can ring, and the water barrier will be designed so that water can flow back outside.

This will help maintain the tower in the future, the report said.

“This takes some of the complexity out of restoring the exterior skin,” according to the report. “It allows the design to focus on the shape of the tower and ornamentation, while allowing the copper skin to act merely as a rain screen and not a total water barrier.”

The cost

The report estimates it will cost from $3 million to $4 million to complete all the repairs.

Doing the project may require a bond, the supervisors said, although nothing has been set yet.

The supervisors have also requested an estimate of what it would cost to cover the dome in all new copper.

“We will try to educate the public as much as possible about this project, through meet and greet-type things,” Campbell said. “We want the public to see photos of it. We want people to understand the project as much as possible before moving forward.”

“We’ll probably have slide shows, we’ll probably have banners,” Jacobson said. “Some of the stuff to touch and feel, probably pieces of the copper, maybe the nails.”

The nails holding the copper down are made of copper, Jacobson said, because using another type of metal in contact with the copper would cause it to corrode faster.

What if nothing is done?

Although it’s possible to do nothing at all at this time, Jacobson said things will just get worse if they’re not addressed.

“They’re at the point they need to do something,” he said.

“The problems will continue and should be addressed sooner to result in better pricing and reduce risk for the county,” according to the report. “As time and weather continue to wear on the existing building, the quantity and types of repairs grow with it exponentially.

“Like unraveling a ball of twine, the rate of elements coming loose will pick up speed as they have more space for movement to occur. Allowing it to sit unaltered over longer periods of time is also very risky, as entire components are likely to fail and potentially all from the tower, causing further harm to the building or individuals below.”

There are options moving forward. The clock tower could be removed entirely, making the front of the courthouse look like the back, but that doesn’t seem to have much support.

“I wouldn’t want to do that,” Dencklau said.

“It’s a landmark,” said Campbell.

And the building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Because of that, “I think if we’re going to get any kind of help funding from anybody there will probably be restrictions on what we can do,” Dencklau said. “If we get historical credits or something, we’ll have to put it back the way it was.”

History

The building is on the National Register of Historic Places, and examination of the structure discovered several bits of history.

“There’s evidence of a fire up there nobody can remember,” Jacobson said.

The crews also found the base of a flagpole which once came up through the center of the dome. Now, a rounded top ornament called a finial stands in its place, but the flagpole can be seen in photos taken in the 1980s.

That flagpole wasn’t there in 1902, though. The clock tower was originally built with a shorter, more ornately designed finial.

Current, close-up photos revealed missing copper pieces, and places where copper has been used as a patches but has torn away. Portions are dented or sagging. A woman’s name has been written on one of the panels. Others show damage from shotgun pellets.

Original plans and photos of the courthouse from around 1910 show details that have been changed, aside from the finial.

There used to be two globes on each corner of the tower; one globe was removed from each corner, while the other was moved to the center of the corner.

There was also a copper cresting that went along the edges of the roof, which kept too much snow from falling onto the sidewalk below, according to the report.

The courthouse was built a number of years after the Webster County seat was moved from Homer to Fort Dodge, in 1856.

The building was first built for a cost of $125,000 in 1902, according to The Messenger’s records. For many years, the Webster County Jail was located on the fourth floor.

In September 2001, the county celebrated completion of two decades’ worth of renovations to the building, which began in 1980 and cost about $4.23 million.

This began when the jail was moved across the street into the Webster County Law Enforcement Center.

Restoration of the clock tower and the limestone exterior was done next, followed by renewed working spaces and updated offices inside.

The last portion of the work was the most expensive, and was made possible by a $2.5 million bond issue approved by county voters in 1996.

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