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Landmark guitar factory smokestack coming down, may return

Kalamazoo Gibson smokestack
The Gibson Smokestack: 'Save The Stack'
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A landmark smokestack that's among the last signs of Kalamazoo's Gibson guitar-making history is coming down for possible preservation and inclusion in a redevelopment plan on the property.

The Kalamazoo Gazette reports Thursday crews expect to finish dismantling the top of the white-lettered brick smokestack within about a week.

Officials say they are removing 30 feet of the 85-foot stack and will determine if more needs to go. 

The top was deemed unstable.

The building is getting a $12 million renovation, and the plan includes observation areas to view the smokestack through lights.

A fundraising campaign is planned to preserve and reconstruct the stack.

Although Gibson Guitar Co. decamped for Nashville in 1984, Heritage Guitar Co. was started by some ex-Gibson employees and makes instruments on the site.

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