From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for May 21, 1987:

The 257-foot white smokestack on Mount Oread was doomed, according to a decision made last year, but the familiar Kansas University landmark of 65 years was going to stick around a little while longer. The stack was to be destroyed and replaced by two 15-foot aluminum stacks, but the old one could not come down until the new ones were finished, which was going to take about 150 days. “And we have to make sure they work, too,” said Allen Wiechert, KU’s director of facilities planning. With another 150 days required to safely demolish the old stack, the entire project was expected to take almost a year.