Summers Tower

Few people know that the tallest building in the world is not the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, it's Summers Tower in Summersville, Kansas--just don’t go looking for it. Summers Tower is not on any map. If you search for it on Google maps, you'll only find a wheat field where the monument should be. But if you ever find yourself driving through Central Kansas, you may see this tower from over 10 miles away.

Summers Tower was built with tax payers’ money. If you've paid taxes in the U.S. any time in the past 10 years, then you have contributed to the tower’s construction. The construction provided many jobs for workers who would otherwise be unemployable and should be on welfare. Its construction was kept secret from all but those working on it. This secrecy was to avoid public outcry. Surely the American people would quickly catch on that the money was just being used up by the Department of Public Works so they would get the same allocation next year. What better place to plop this worthless monument than the middle of the Kansan plains, where nobody would find it but by accident?

The town of Summersville is nearly a ghost town, with only a dozen or so families. Outside the tower the town consists of a restaurant, a gas station and a school.

The building itself is an architectural marvel, if impractical. The architects knew it would never be used, and let their imaginations run wild in drawing up the blueprints. The building has 250 floors and looks a bit like a Soviet reconstruction of the Emerald City. Except for a gift shop/convenience store on the ground level, the rest of the building is vacant. The building was only erected two years ago, and it's already falling into disrepair.

The people in Summersville have since become inured to the building’s ominous presence. At first they were terrified of this modern Tower of Babel erected in their town. Now they hardly notice it, blissfully riding their combines around it.

But whenever one crosses the path of the monument's shadow, one feels a sudden chill as if a strong early spring breeze has blown by, sending a sense of dread into the soul. It is always like that in the shadow of the tower.