Wilkins Peak
Utah
A propane truck with failed brakes rolled into a public radio tower on Wilkins Peak and knocked it flat.
In September of two thousand three, a commercial truck climbed Wilkins Peak to deliver propane to customers up top. On the way, its brakes failed. The truck hit the KUWZ tower and brought it down. Power to the whole mountain went out for hours. KUWZ carried National Public Radio programming to Green River and Rock Springs, and after the crash it survived by borrowing space on neighboring towers for months. Eventually the station gave up on the peak entirely and moved its transmitter to Aspen Mountain nearby. The rest of the antenna farm stayed. Wilkins Peak still carries a crowded stack of FM signals, television translators, and repeaters for local police, fire, and emergency medical crews. Gas company radios run through it too. The summit sits at seven thousand six hundred fifty feet, reachable on unpaved roads that nobody has gated. It is open all year, weather permitting.
This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.
In September 2003, a commercial truck delivering propane to customers on the peak knocked down the then-existent KUWZ tower after the vehicle's brakes failed.
Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Nearby, on the same roads
- The Palisades (Green River, Wyoming) 8.4 mi A rockfall here never touched the interstate, but it still shut it down.
- Rock Springs massacre 9.3 mi At least twenty-eight Chinese miners were killed here in a single afternoon, and no one was ever prosecuted.
- Fort Bridger 55.6 mi A rider carrying letters found the Donner Party on the trail, promising a better road to California and a guide waiting at Fort Bridger.