You can see them from miles away, slowly materializing out of the ozone when you travel toward them on I-35W or 694 on a clear day, and the red safety lights pulsing through clouds or fog or the night sky.
The [Telefarm] towers were built in the 1970s for analog television, and were replacements for a single “candelabra” style tower that collapsed prior to completion in 1971, killing six workers on the tower and one on the ground.
Shoreview made national headlines in September 1971 when a television tower on the site of the current Telefarm Towers collapsed during construction, killing seven workers.
The three aerial FM radio and television towers are just north along I-694 in Shoreview, the suburb just north of Arden Hills and Roseville on the St. Paul side of the Twin Cities. Telefarm Towers are the pair to the west, and KMSP Tower is to the east.
45 years later, Shoreview towers stand strong (presspubs.com) SHOREVIEW — It has been 45 years since the Shoreview TV tower collapse that left seven workers dead the day after Labor Day in 1971.
Sure, Shoreview has trees — but it’s the three giant towers that command attention (minnpost.com) “For good or ill, Shoreview is known as the home of the TV towers,” former Shoreview Mayor Bill Ferrell told the late, great Pioneer Press columnist Don Boxmeyer in the early 1990s. “Even the pine trees on Shoreview’s official logo are mistaken for TV towers.”
Telefarm Towers (Wikipedia) The Telefarm Towers is a transmission site for FM radio and television broadcasting in Shoreview, Minnesota consisting of two guyed towers.