Echoes June 2018 Issue 2 - Supplemental Content Updated HCS 11/07/2018
'Alien' Concrete Arrows, Beacons and Air Mail References
The following references were consulted for the 'Alien' Concrete Arrows, Beacons and Air Mail
article in the June 2018 issue of Echoes From the Past.
Books, Articles, and Maps
United States Army Air Corps Of Engineers, and U.S.. Topographic Branch Geological Survey. Aeronautical strip maps of the United States. Washington, D.C.: Air Corps, 1924. Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress,
www.loc.gov/item/2009582531/. Specific map reference, https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3701pm.gct00064/?sp=89&r=0.388,0.554,0.324,0.187,0 .
Map # 89 , from 1927, shows northern California and the respective airway markers all the way to San Francisco. If you look closely at the San Francisco Bay Area, you can see that no bridges exist between Oakland and San Francisco, nor San Francisco and Marin, and in fact what we today refer to as 'Yerba Buena Island' was then referred to as Goat Island. The 'stuff' you learn on the way is just amazing!
Air Corps Map of 1935, Reno to San Francisco, showing airway markers
Flying Magazine, November 1962, https://books.google.com/books?id=S-45uoS-v04C&pg=PA51&dq=air+mail+red+crown+flight+beacon&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmz5quq-XaAhWuT98KHVG9BvwQ6wEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=air%20mail%20red%20crown%20flight%20beacon&f=false
Lehrer, Henry R., (2014). Flying the Beam: Navigating the Early US Airmail Airways, 1917-1941, Purdue University Press.
McLaughlin, Mark, April 28, 2010, Weather Window: Flu, war and airmail,
https://www.truckeesun.com/news/opinion/weather-window-flu-war-and-airmail/
McLaughlin, Mark (2010). The Weekly, Sierra Stories. U.S. Mail: From Ponies to Planes; 2010 (through July 2010)
McLaughlin, Mark (2016). The Tahoe Weekly Sierra Stories Ponies, Trains & Planes Delivering the U.S. Mail, p. 30
National Geographic (2015, April). Subscription-based access only. Reed Karaim, http://archive.nationalgeographic.com/?iid=117743#folio=21
Nevada State Journal, September 11, 1922, Air Mail Service Celebrates Second Year of Service Today Western Division Leads All Others in Efficiency and Service: Reno Pilots Have Had Thrilling Experiences During Term Here; includes references to C.K. Vance, a veteran pilot on an eastern division transferred to San Francisco, and Stanhope Boggs whose doctor ordered him not to continue to fly over ‘the hump’ (the Sierra Nevada) because of a weak heart. On one flight, Boggs also landed on Market Street in San Francisco when his motor died. And another pilot, “Monte” Mouton wound up landing on a level spot on the summit of Mt. Rose and “parked the old bus [airplane] in a snowdrift. The boys don’t dread the landing so much, they’ll tell you, but ‘the walk back is sure hell.’” (NSJ, 9/11/22).
Oakland Tribune, September 10, 1920, Oakland Boy Pilots First Mail Plane; Lucky 71 Hops Off in San Francisco At 6:15 and Is in Reno at 8:20, Cutting 27 Minutes From Schedule; Westbound Pioneer Mail Air Flier Passed Over Hump...
Oakland Tribune, January 28, 1923, p. 8, first Reno airport named after William Blanchfield
Oakland Tribune, February 25, 1923, p. 9, When Winslow’s Ship Stood Still in the Heavens, by Jack Bell (subscription-based archive access only)
Oakland Tribune, September 16, 1924, p. 72
Popular Mechanics, April 1927, https://books.google.com/books?id=nNgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA608&dq=air+mail+red+crown+flight+beacon&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmz5quq-XaAhWuT98KHVG9BvwQ6AEIMTAC#v=onepage&q=air%20mail%20red%20crown%20flight%20beacon&f=false
Popular Mechanics, Perils of the Sky Scanners, December 1932, pp. 933-35
https://books.google.com/books?id=fvEDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA934&ots=acMmIe3XSQ&dq=Donner%20Summit%20airway%20station&pg=PA933#v=onepage&q=Donner%20Summit%20airway%20station&f=false
Teale, Edwin (1935, November). Popular Science, Lighthouse Keepers of the Sky, Vol. 127, no. 5, pp. 13-15, 111; https://bit.ly/2IwGaHE (shortened URL)
Reno Evening Gazette, September 9, 1920, pp. 1-2, First Aerial Mail Delivered Here From East, Arrival of Big Plane Marks Beginning of Regular Trips Across Continent
Rogers, S.A. (2013, December 30). Pointing Nowhere: Mysterious Giant Arrows in Remote Places,
https://weburbanist.com/2013/12/30/pointing-nowhere-mysterious-arrows-in-remote-places/
The National Geographic Magazine (1926, January). On the Trail of the Air Mail, https://archive.nationalgeographic.com/?iid=52385#folio=4 (subscription-based access only), P. 5
Websites
http://www.core77.com/blog/transportation/what_are_these_giant_concrete_arrows_across_the_american_landscape_25236.asp
http://eaaforums.org/showthread.php?4306-Air-Mail-route-markers-from-the-1920s/page2
http://bit.ly/1eKkd6B historic airway beacon sites and their coordinates, Google
Concrete Arrows and the U.S. Airmail Beacon System, http://sometimes-interesting.com/2013/12/04/concrete-arrows-and-the-u-s-airmail-beacon-system/# , December 4, 2013
Interest aplenty in historic Air Mail arrows in Reno area (2014, February 10). http://www.rgj.com/story/life/2014/02/11/interest-aplenty-in-historic-air-mail-arrows/5374157/
Dreamsmithphotos.com:
Truckee Airport beacon # 16. http://www.dreamsmithphotos.com/arrow/States/ca/18a_ca_16_truckee.html
Donner beacon # 15. http://www.dreamsmithphotos.com/arrow/States/ca/18a_ca_15_donner.html
(Do compare these earlier photographs with those shown in the Donner Summit Historical Society’s December 2016 Heirloom issue, starting on page 5.)
http://www.dreamsmithphotos.com/arrow/airmail_routes/route_11_20/18/cam_18sf_sl.html#reno
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_NE.htm#truckee
Abandoned and Little Known Airfields (Truckee Intermediate Field was evidently abandoned at some point between 1954-57, no longer depicted at all on the September 1957 Sacramento Sectional Chart. It was replaced by the Truckee-Tahoe airport, a mile to the SOUTH.) Also,
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/NV/Airfields_NV_NW.htm#blanch, a 1921 photo showing Reno Air Mail Field / Blanchfield . The Reno airport was named in honor of William Blanchfield who died in a crash in his plane in August 1924.
http://www.mdt.mt.gov/aviation/beacons.shtml; purportedly, Montana still maintains three night-time lighted airway beacons
http://bit.ly/1eKkd6B, Google map of historic airway beacon sites and their GPS coordinates
United States Army Air Corps Of Engineers, and U.S.. Topographic Branch Geological Survey. Aeronautical strip maps of the United States. Washington, D.C.: Air Corps, 1924. Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress,
www.loc.gov/item/2009582531/. Specific map reference, https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3701pm.gct00064/?sp=89&r=0.388,0.554,0.324,0.187,0 .
Map # 89 , from 1927, shows northern California and the respective airway markers all the way to San Francisco. If you look closely at the San Francisco Bay Area, you can see that no bridges exist between Oakland and San Francisco, nor San Francisco and Marin, and in fact what we today refer to as 'Yerba Buena Island' was then referred to as Goat Island. The 'stuff' you learn on the way is just amazing!
Air Corps Map of 1935, Reno to San Francisco, showing airway markers
Flying Magazine, November 1962, https://books.google.com/books?id=S-45uoS-v04C&pg=PA51&dq=air+mail+red+crown+flight+beacon&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmz5quq-XaAhWuT98KHVG9BvwQ6wEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=air%20mail%20red%20crown%20flight%20beacon&f=false
Lehrer, Henry R., (2014). Flying the Beam: Navigating the Early US Airmail Airways, 1917-1941, Purdue University Press.
McLaughlin, Mark, April 28, 2010, Weather Window: Flu, war and airmail,
https://www.truckeesun.com/news/opinion/weather-window-flu-war-and-airmail/
McLaughlin, Mark (2010). The Weekly, Sierra Stories. U.S. Mail: From Ponies to Planes; 2010 (through July 2010)
McLaughlin, Mark (2016). The Tahoe Weekly Sierra Stories Ponies, Trains & Planes Delivering the U.S. Mail, p. 30
National Geographic (2015, April). Subscription-based access only. Reed Karaim, http://archive.nationalgeographic.com/?iid=117743#folio=21
Nevada State Journal, September 11, 1922, Air Mail Service Celebrates Second Year of Service Today Western Division Leads All Others in Efficiency and Service: Reno Pilots Have Had Thrilling Experiences During Term Here; includes references to C.K. Vance, a veteran pilot on an eastern division transferred to San Francisco, and Stanhope Boggs whose doctor ordered him not to continue to fly over ‘the hump’ (the Sierra Nevada) because of a weak heart. On one flight, Boggs also landed on Market Street in San Francisco when his motor died. And another pilot, “Monte” Mouton wound up landing on a level spot on the summit of Mt. Rose and “parked the old bus [airplane] in a snowdrift. The boys don’t dread the landing so much, they’ll tell you, but ‘the walk back is sure hell.’” (NSJ, 9/11/22).
Oakland Tribune, September 10, 1920, Oakland Boy Pilots First Mail Plane; Lucky 71 Hops Off in San Francisco At 6:15 and Is in Reno at 8:20, Cutting 27 Minutes From Schedule; Westbound Pioneer Mail Air Flier Passed Over Hump...
Oakland Tribune, January 28, 1923, p. 8, first Reno airport named after William Blanchfield
Oakland Tribune, February 25, 1923, p. 9, When Winslow’s Ship Stood Still in the Heavens, by Jack Bell (subscription-based archive access only)
Oakland Tribune, September 16, 1924, p. 72
Popular Mechanics, April 1927, https://books.google.com/books?id=nNgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA608&dq=air+mail+red+crown+flight+beacon&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjmz5quq-XaAhWuT98KHVG9BvwQ6AEIMTAC#v=onepage&q=air%20mail%20red%20crown%20flight%20beacon&f=false
Popular Mechanics, Perils of the Sky Scanners, December 1932, pp. 933-35
https://books.google.com/books?id=fvEDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA934&ots=acMmIe3XSQ&dq=Donner%20Summit%20airway%20station&pg=PA933#v=onepage&q=Donner%20Summit%20airway%20station&f=false
Teale, Edwin (1935, November). Popular Science, Lighthouse Keepers of the Sky, Vol. 127, no. 5, pp. 13-15, 111; https://bit.ly/2IwGaHE (shortened URL)
Reno Evening Gazette, September 9, 1920, pp. 1-2, First Aerial Mail Delivered Here From East, Arrival of Big Plane Marks Beginning of Regular Trips Across Continent
Rogers, S.A. (2013, December 30). Pointing Nowhere: Mysterious Giant Arrows in Remote Places,
https://weburbanist.com/2013/12/30/pointing-nowhere-mysterious-arrows-in-remote-places/
The National Geographic Magazine (1926, January). On the Trail of the Air Mail, https://archive.nationalgeographic.com/?iid=52385#folio=4 (subscription-based access only), P. 5
Websites
http://www.core77.com/blog/transportation/what_are_these_giant_concrete_arrows_across_the_american_landscape_25236.asp
http://eaaforums.org/showthread.php?4306-Air-Mail-route-markers-from-the-1920s/page2
http://bit.ly/1eKkd6B historic airway beacon sites and their coordinates, Google
Concrete Arrows and the U.S. Airmail Beacon System, http://sometimes-interesting.com/2013/12/04/concrete-arrows-and-the-u-s-airmail-beacon-system/# , December 4, 2013
Interest aplenty in historic Air Mail arrows in Reno area (2014, February 10). http://www.rgj.com/story/life/2014/02/11/interest-aplenty-in-historic-air-mail-arrows/5374157/
Dreamsmithphotos.com:
Truckee Airport beacon # 16. http://www.dreamsmithphotos.com/arrow/States/ca/18a_ca_16_truckee.html
Donner beacon # 15. http://www.dreamsmithphotos.com/arrow/States/ca/18a_ca_15_donner.html
(Do compare these earlier photographs with those shown in the Donner Summit Historical Society’s December 2016 Heirloom issue, starting on page 5.)
http://www.dreamsmithphotos.com/arrow/airmail_routes/route_11_20/18/cam_18sf_sl.html#reno
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_NE.htm#truckee
Abandoned and Little Known Airfields (Truckee Intermediate Field was evidently abandoned at some point between 1954-57, no longer depicted at all on the September 1957 Sacramento Sectional Chart. It was replaced by the Truckee-Tahoe airport, a mile to the SOUTH.) Also,
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/NV/Airfields_NV_NW.htm#blanch, a 1921 photo showing Reno Air Mail Field / Blanchfield . The Reno airport was named in honor of William Blanchfield who died in a crash in his plane in August 1924.
http://www.mdt.mt.gov/aviation/beacons.shtml; purportedly, Montana still maintains three night-time lighted airway beacons
http://bit.ly/1eKkd6B, Google map of historic airway beacon sites and their GPS coordinates
