Fantastic photographs from the Smithsonian, including at least one of Elko Nevada can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/4011409604/in/photostream/


One of Elko Nevada's claims to fame in the airmail system:

So what is the antenna-looking-thingey above and behind the hangar??


Inquiring minds want to know.....
lc

Found another arrow, this one is a 90 degree turn. Found it thanks to the spreadsheet in the link that Rob posted. Maybe one of the Nevada boys can check it out. It's here: 40 55 40.32566, -114 17 40.02690

Littlecub wrote:So what is the antenna-looking-thingey above and behind the hangar??


Inquiring minds want to know.....
lc

I could be wrong but it appears to be some sort of antenna thingy.

This link contains some more great information on the Pasco-Boise-Elko route and includes newspaper articles with photos.

http://1926flight-greenhat6.blogspot.com/2009/07/pasco-elko-and-boise-1926-airmail.html

Yeah... curse your Straydog...

Got hooked on the old maps. Found three charts for the LA-Vegas-SLC route, (CAM-4). The middle chart, 133-06-1935, is Vegas to Milford and comes kinda by my house. Started looking and there are several arrows near my location. They had to lay them down pretty thick here to get the guys through the pass at Black Ridge. Some of them are still here and today I went to the one near the old St. George airport.

You were right. Family members don't always appreciate these things. 50 years ago I was in high school. These things were laid down about 50 years after the Pony Express stopped operating. Today I can find out this stuff on my phone!!

My withered leg at the point of the arrow:


Up on a ridge near St. George, UT:


Nearby, the old St. George airport, sadly, now closed, (sigh):


If you can't see the next beacon... just land on this mesa...


The concrete arrow is not the only weird thing on this ridge:


The next couple of arrows in the sequence are still in place, but they are a bit of a hike and it's still 100+ down there in St. George so I will wait for cooler wx before a visit. This is a really cool thread and standing on one of these arrows, it's not hard to imagine an open cockpit biplane carrying half a dozen letters along this route, flying slower than my car...

YB

Here are three more for sure and one maybe.
Meacham, Or.  45 29.6434 , -118 24.1111
Locomotive Springs, Ut 41 42.4969, -112 55.1850
Buffalo Valley, Nv 40 20.7205, -117 20.8610
Promontory Point, Ut (maybe) 41 12.7445, -112 25.7576

Is there a way for others to update the google map or only through your login?
SD

Straydog wrote:Here are three more for sure and one maybe.
Meacham, Or.  45 29.6434 , -118 24.1111
Locomotive Springs, Ut 41 42.4969, -112 55.1850
Buffalo Valley, Nv 40 20.7205, -117 20.8610
Promontory Point, Ut (maybe) 41 12.7445, -112 25.7576

Is there a way for others to update the google map or only through your login?
SD

Not really sure. When you go to the map is there an Edit button anywhere? I made the map public. I'll check the settings and see what I need to do to allow others to add to it. Might need a Google account to do so though.

I'll go ahead and add these in. You don't happen to know the beacon names or numbers do you?

Anyone who wants to collaborate on the map please pm me your email address. I'm thinking gmail addresses will work best but we'll try any email. I found the settings and willing to add folks who will CAREFULLY place markers on the concrete arrows or other beacon locations. Just don't want markers disappearing as I've seen in other google map collaborations.

God bless these folks near Cottage Grove, MN. They built their farmhouse around the arrow! You can eve see it on the Google street view.

44 49 08.03702, -092 54 42.46795

One more thing, it appears that the original airway beacon tower is still in use at SAN FRANCIS SEATTLE AWY BN 12. Now being used as the Willows Airport (KWLW) rotating beacon tower. The concrete arrow seems to have been removed.

svanarts wrote:God bless these folks near Cottage Grove, MN. They built their farmhouse around the arrow! You can eve see it on the Google street view.

44 49 08.03702, -092 54 42.46795

The workers that poured it probably never thought that someday it would be used as a basketball court.

I'm going to take a stab that antenna thingy may be an early version of a directional shortwave antenna.

Apparently Montana still maintains the airway beacons.

http://www.mdt.mt.gov/aviation/beacons.shtml

Tip of the hat to Brian Carroll for this tidbit.

Apparently Montana still maintains the airway beacons.

Cool information! Thanks!
lc

ON THE NORTH SIDE I40 (ROUTE 66) JUST WEST OF ALBUQUERQUE AND ALMOST ACROSS FROM THE ROUTE 66 CASINO POINTING TOWARD ALBUQUERQUE. I'LL POST A PHOTO WHEN I RETURN FROM OSH. MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT THEY WERE DIRECTIONAL INDICATORS FOR THE MAIL ROUTE.

ARNOLD

I have a buddy who is a contract engineer for several broadcast radio stations. I showed him that picture of the aerial array behind that hangar photo from the Smithsonian web site. He says it was a communications antenna. Here's what he said:

" That's a top loaded vertical, most likely for MW of LW. The vertical drop is the antenna lead, the wires between the towers are just top loading, or a capacity hat to help lower the resonant freq. What you see is actually half the antenna. The other half is radials below the ground surface, or the metal buildings below the feedpoint. The "Inverted L" and the "Marconi T" are basically the same.

It's for communications, or broadcast. Most likely for communications. If it was 1920 as you suggest, then almost certainly was a spark transmitter/receiver setup."

So I looked up spark gap transmitter and that seems the most feasible to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark-gap_transmitter

I stumbled across one. There's a fire going NE of Ellensburg (Clockum Tarps fire) and I was looking at a map of the area and noticed an "Airway Beacon" label. I zoomed in to the location in Google earth and found the old foundation right next to "Beacon Road".

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=47+6+14. ... s&t=h&z=15

tcj wrote:I stumbled across one. There's a fire going NE of Ellensburg (Clockum Tarps fire) and I was looking at a map of the area and noticed an "Airway Beacon" label. I zoomed in to the location in Google earth and found the old foundation right next to "Beacon Road".

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=47+6+14. ... s&t=h&z=15

Cool! I added it to the map and it falls right in line between Seattle and SLC.

svanarts wrote:

I have a buddy who is a contract engineer for several broadcast radio stations. I showed him that picture of the aerial array behind that hangar photo from the Smithsonian web site. He says it was a communications antenna. Here's what he said:

" That's a top loaded vertical, most likely for MW of LW. The vertical drop is the antenna lead, the wires between the towers are just top loading, or a capacity hat to help lower the resonant freq. What you see is actually half the antenna. The other half is radials below the ground surface, or the metal buildings below the feedpoint. The "Inverted L" and the "Marconi T" are basically the same.

It's for communications, or broadcast. Most likely for communications. If it was 1920 as you suggest, then almost certainly was a spark transmitter/receiver setup."

So I looked up spark gap transmitter and that seems the most feasible to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark-gap_transmitter

Very cool!! Thanks for posting. I wonder if you can order copies of photos like that one from the Smithsonian? It would make a great hangar decoration.