Arrows Across America- concrete arrows

2 min read Original article ↗

These giant arrows were called Beacon Stations and helped guide the pilots of early airmail flights across the nation.
They were at the base of 50 foot skeleton towers that had a 24" or 36" rotating beacon and in the early days painted Chrome Yellow. Where electicity was unavailable they had a generator shed on the feather end of the arrow to power the beacon. The site number was painted on one side of the roof of the shed, the other side had the airway.They pointed to the next higher numbered beacon station, directing the pilot along his route. All arrows pointed east on the west-east airways and north on the south-north airways.  They were built between December 1926 and November 1932, when metal arrows became the standard.

Each photo is a link to a webpage with more photos and information about that site, including the gps location.

There were 34 Contract Air Mail (C.A.M.) routes that pilots flew the airmail over. We have arranged the arrows by their C.A.M. No._beacon No., airway and name.

Example: 1_09 NY-B Bethany-means Contract Air Mail route No. 1, beacon site No. 9 on the New York-Boston airway, Bethany, Department of Commerce Intermediate Landing Field-(abreviated to DOCILF).

You can also search by State, by going to the Arrows & Beacons page.

example of a beacon station

2014 -California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas,
Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona

2015-California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada

2017-California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma,
Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming,

You may have learned about the concrete arrows on the TV show "What On Earth", on the Discovery Channel.
We did a segment for it in 2015, which aired in February 2016, if you haven't seen it check you local listings as it is in re-runs all the time.

"Flying the Federal Airway", by Quig Staver

12 cartoon panels created and published November 10 to November 22, 1933. Easy to understand description of the componets that make up an airway, from rotating beacons, concrete arrows, intermediate landing fields, etc. This is really worth a look.