Editing Ferris Wheel (1893) (section)

==Demolition and disposition==
After the 1904 World's Fair closed on December 1, 1904, no purchasers were found who would pay for the relocation of the great Ferris Wheel, despite many efforts. It was finally destroyed by controlled demolition using dynamite on May 11, 1906 (18 months after the fair closed), to be sold for scrap. This was necessary because the contract with the city of St. Louis required the "restoration of Forest Park."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Ferris__George.html|title=Ferris, George Washington Gale Jr|first=Lindsey|last=Ulizio|publisher=[[The Pennsylvania Center for the Book]]|year=2006|access-date=2013-04-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100507032023/http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Ferris__George.html|archive-date=2010-05-07|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2007, a magnetic survey using a cesium [[magnetometer]]<ref>{{cite web|date=May 2007|author=Sheldon Breiner
|url=http://www.breiner.com/sheldon/papers/Magnetometer%20survey%20for%20buried%20Axle%20in%20St%20Louis%20May,%202007.pdf|access-date=1 May 2023|website=breiner.com|title=Magnetic Survey to Find Axle from Observation (Ferris) Wheel Used in the 1904 St Louis World's Fair}}</ref> indicated that a long, steel or iron object (presumed to be the axle) was buried under a major street roughly {{Convert|200|ft}} from where the wheel was demolished. It has not yet been excavated.<ref name="orangebeanindiana"/>

Since 2000, other published documents and research into original papers (from the Chicago House Wrecking Company, c.1904–1906) indicate that the axle was taken back to Chicago, where it was eventually cut up for scrap when oxy-acetylene torches improved sufficiently to cut the hardened steel axle up for scrap. These references include Norman Anderson's book ''Ferris Wheels: An Illustrated History'',<ref>{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Norman |title=Ferris Wheels, an Illustrated History |year=1992 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SkFQ5tgWKfEC&q=Norman+Anderson+Ferris+Wheels |publisher=Popular Pr of Bowling Green State |isbn=9780879725327 |access-date=1 October 2021}}</ref> several unpublished CHWC letters and documents, an article by Leo Harris (grandson of the CHWC's Treasurer) who wrote that "...the giant axle of the wheel was returned to the yards of the CHWC, where it remained until it was cut up for its steel content at the beginning of World War I",<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Harris |first1=Leo |title=Wrecking to Save World's Fairs |journal=The Ephemera Journal |date=Fall 2015 |page=9 |url=https://www.ephemerasociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Ephemera-Journal-Vol14-Issue-1.pdf |access-date=29 October 2021}}</ref> and an article published on February 1, 1907, in the ''Clinton'' (IL) ''Register'', indicating, "The last of the Ferris Wheel has been taken away... It was found necessary to blow off the flanges from the axle ... before it could be loaded on a (railroad) car".<ref>{{cite news |last=N. R. |first=H. |title=At The World's Fair Ground |url=https://www.newspapers.com/search/#query=steel+axle&t=22820,4064&p_province=us-il,us-mo&ymd=1907-02-01 |access-date=29 October 2021 |newspaper=[[The Clinton Register]] |location=[[Clinton, Illinois]] |page=1 |date=February 1, 1907}}</ref>