Before we bought Winchester Ranch, we looked at ranches in Oregon, California, New Mexico, and Arizona. One of the features we liked on Nutt Mountain Ranch in New Mexico, was a rock water tower. Nutt Mountain Ranch structures were built of stone, including a chapel, barns, three houses, drinkers, water tanks, and more. The rock water tower was particularly interesting as it was round, two stories tall, and built from rocks on site.
Our architect, Guy Peterson, designed a three story rock tower for us, sitting within 25' of our house, and housing our water storage tank and Bob (our ATV) on the first floor, fitness equipment and storage on the second floor, and an observation room and deck on the third floor. Papa and I collected over 100 tons of rock within site of the tower. Building it was a big effort, from getting a crane to put the steel posts in place to the rock mason laying the stone, to the builder hanging out on a single board to put on the roof.
