3 miles (4.8 km) west of Blanchard, North Dakota, USA

1963

A slight deviation from the communications towers featured in this section of Robin’s Website insofar as it does not contain an observation deck. The KVLY-TV mast does, however, warrant a special mention due to its history of being a world record breaker. Upon its completion in 1963, it became the first man-made structure to exceed 2,000 feet in height. This guy-roped TV mast stood as the tallest structure in the world until 1974, when it was succeeded by the Warsaw radio mast. However, in 1991, a catastrophic failure led to the Warsaw radio mast collapsing, when it first bent and then snapped roughly halfway up. Once again, the KVLY-TV mast became the tallest structure in the world, until 2008, when it was superseded by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. At the time of writing (December 2017), the KVLY-TV mast is the fourth-tallest structure in the world.
A visit was made here by the author of this website in 2017 whilst exploring the Midwest, right the way up to North Dakota. Unlike other communications towers featured in this section of the website, despite being a clear day, it was quite surprising to see that it could not be seen from a relatively great distance away when approaching it. This is due to its relatively narrow width. The location is rural and it was possible to drive up a track right to the very base, although for the purposes of photographing the structure in its entirety, it was obviously necessary to maintain some distance away. No other people were to be seen in the vicinity of this remote former world-record breaker. However, it is difficult to imagine that statistically there aren’t any other visitors here who come to see it every now and again.
It may be worth noting to any other would-be visitor, GPS or a very detailed local map is useful – the KVLY-TV mast is not to be confused with the KRDK-TV mast, which stands just five miles southeast of here and is just 3 feet (1m) shorter, making it at the time of writing the fifth-tallest structure in the world.