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Camp Tower

Camp towers are camp attractions. An approx. 6-15m high camp tower can be built from long wooden poles in 1-2 days. Building such a tower is not always a safe thing to do and requires special attention throughout the camp period. Kids around the tower area must be supervised and all of the anchors and ropes must be checked.

Idea:

The tower of Babel

Details:

Ask the responsible forestry office or owner of the woods in order to get some suitable wooden poles and ask whether suitable pine trees can be marked and cut down. The poles are driven into the camp with a tractor. Braces are attached to the main poles which are used to avoid the masts from falling over. The practical use of the Pythagoras rule finally becomes useful. The camp tower is secure with lots of ropes and several kilos of nails. You will need 2-3 days for building depending on the height and extent. Wooden bracings found at a local wood mill are used to attach the less important braces. Different platforms avoid stability.

Note:

The ladders are attached to the inside and staggered so that if any kids fall, they only fall onto the next platform. It is also forbidden to pull on the ropes and make the tower swing. Please also make sure to control the number of people on the tower at the same time and on the different platforms.

Building such a tower is not always a safe thing to do and requires special attention throughout the camp period. The kids, who are playing on the tower, must always be supervised and all of the anchors and braces must be checked. We have built towers measuring up to 15 metres in the past and we have never had a reason to interfere and have never experienced any incidents. We pulled the tower down on the last day and sawed it up to make a huge camp fire.

Building Plan

At least four long, stable tree trunks are required as the basis. More sturdy trunks are required for each extra level. The forest owner or ranger can mark suitable tree trunks which are not rotten and which are allowed to be cut down.
Braces are also required - obviously these cannot be rotten either. Depending upon the size of the tower, a sufficient number of braces are required. In order to avoid the tower twisting (especially when several levels are planned), several braces at diagonals are to be attached.
The way the tower looks or the number of the necessary braces heavily depends upon the strength of the base trunks. If you can organise 6-8 long tree trunks measuring around 15 metres, you will need a lot less braces. The tower won't look as "thrown together".
The tower is also fixed with ropes so that the tower could remain standing even if 1 or 2 ropes were to be removed.
We fixed the braces with long nails. Anyone who wants to do without nails will required a number of strong ropes.
Remove any protruding sticks to minimise the risk of injury.