If you’re ever really lost on a road trip across America, and I’m talking
really lost (let’s say the battery on your
smartphone
just died along with that compass application you downloaded for situations
just
like this), perhaps you might be lucky enough to find yourself next to
one of the giant 70 foot concrete arrows that point your way across the
country, left behind by a forgotten age of US mail delivery.
Certainly a peculiar site to come across
in the middle of nowhere, 50 foot, possibly 70 foot long, with weeds
crawling through its concrete cracks, abandoned long ago by whoever put
it there. This arrow may point your way out of the desert but it’s also
pointing to the past.
Long before the days of radio (and those convenient little
smartphone applications),
the US Postal service began a cross-country air mail service using army
war surplus planes from World War I, many piloted by former army
flyers. To get the planes and everybody’s mail safely across the country
by air, the postman was going to need a little help.
In 1924, the federal government funded enormous concrete arrows to be built every 10 miles or so along established
airmail
routes to help the pilots trace their way across America in bad weather
conditions and particularly at night, which was a more efficient time
to fly.
Painted in bright yellow, they were each
built alongside a 50 foot tall tower with a rotating gas-powered light
and a little rest house for the folks that maintained the
generators and lights. These airway beacons are said to have been visible from a distance of 10 miles high.
The Air Mail route from New York to San Francisco with beacon locations.
A model of one of the arrows and beacons at the IPMS
(International Plastic Modelers Socity) Nationals contest in Loveland,
CO, which you a pretty good idea of the layout. Photo via here.
By World War II, radio was king and the
airway beacons were obsolete. Taking anything they could get, the
government took down the towers and recycled them as scrap metal for the
war effort.
It’s unknown exactly how many airway lighthouses remain (project anyone?) but one preservation program called
Passport in Time has protected three beacon sites from falling into
complete disrepair, saving the
generator huts and a neighbouring 1930s cabin that served as a residence for the fire lookout.
There is also this fully restored restored tower and its generator shack in New Mexico.
While no one bothered to remove the concrete arrows, many have
probably been caught up by development but an outline could still be
visible from the air if they were just covered over by a grass lawn. Or
maybe you might just come across some concrete remains that seem very
out of place in the middle of a field…
Here’s a link to one of the giant arrows on
Google maps as well as a website listing the original locations of
Eastern and
Western beacons, siting which ones have been found/ destroyed/ preserved etc.
Anyone feel like getting lost on purpose to go on a treasure hunt for these giant arrows to the past?!
Sources: A very welcome tip from a reader! as well as Core77, this forum, The History Mystery Exaxaminer.
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