Why This Incredible Creation Should Not Be Called Dr. Seuss House?

Petr Svab
4/21/2016
Updated:
10/5/2018

Out in the wilderness of Willow, Alaska, Phillip Weidner built a house for himself that, as he put it, is his “poem to the sky.”

His original intent was to build a log cabin. But then he realized the cabin could hold another one on top of it. And then, “I just kept going,” he said.

He calls the house Goose Creek Tower. It’s 185 feet tall (because 200 ft is the limit of federal air space in the area). I has eight levels, though that’s more of an estimate, because it “depends how you count storeys,” he said.

Goose Creek Tower. (<a href="http://www.alaska.org/detail/dr-seuss-house" target="_blank">Alaska.org</a>)
Goose Creek Tower. (Alaska.org)

All the top levels have a 360-degree lookout and, if the weather permits, he can see 300 miles out.

The tower became known as “Dr. Seuss House,” perhaps because it looks a bit like something from Whoville.

Goose Creek Tower. (<a href="http://www.alaska.org/detail/dr-seuss-house" target="_blank">Alaska.org</a>)
Goose Creek Tower. (Alaska.org)

But Weidner doesn’t condone the nickname. “I think that’s inappropriate,” he said in a 2015 Exploring The Obscure mini documentary. “I’ve never had any permission from Dr. Seuss to refer to him.”

Weidner has been working on the house for at least 15 years and he’s still not done. Eventually, he wants to open the house to the public. Well, not literally open---not the interior. But he wants to give the public a chance to come and see it.