Zhanna

Michael La Rose has submitted some photos showing a beacon tower he spotted adjacent to the Belfast Municipal Airport on Maine National Guard property (but outside their fence).

Michael writes: “The ladder is still intact and goes all the way to the ground so climb if you dare! Sadly I haven’t been able to find any history yet on whether or not it is the original airport beacon or predates the airport which apparently opened in 1943.”

Coordinates for the beacon tower are: N 44.411734°, W 69.010191°.

Thank you for your contribution, Michael!

This is a guest post, with photos and accompanying text contributed by Dave Sbur. Thanks for your contribution, Dave!

Dave writes:

All photos were taken August 15, 2020. It’s all kind of a jewel in the rough; I was surprised to find it all in somewhat decent condition considering the age. Arlington is kind of a sleepy town, the airport is still active but is hardly used. There is a drone company that uses it for development, I understand.

If you look closely you can see some faint numbers on the roofs of the sheds for the Portland-Spokane Airway, part of the C.A.M. 32 route. No trace of a concrete arrow could be found on the site. The airport was listed in the Dept. of Commerce listings in 1931 as a DOCILF (Dept. of Commerce intermediate landing field). It was also used as an Army Air Force auxiliary field in WW2. According to the book Arlington, Child of the Columbia by Marion T. Weatherford there was a strafing range about a mile west of town the military used for practice during the war.

“Department of Commerce intermediate field, site 12, Portland-Spokane Airway. One and one-fourth miles E. Altitude, 850 feet. Irregular shape, 2,400 feet E./W., 2,000 feet NW./SE., sod, level, natural drainage; entire field available. Directional arrow marked “12 P-S.” Pole line to N., beacon tower to NW. Beacon, boundary, approach, and obstruction lights. Beacon, 24-inch rotating, with green course lights flashing characteristic “2” (.._). Aviation fuel. No other servicing facilities. Teletypewriter. Department of Commerce marker beacon, characteristic signal “H” (. . . .), operating frequencies 248 and 278 kc.”

With the above from a 1931 source, I found the discrepancies of the ‘beacon tower to NW’ when it appears to be to the SW. Perhaps things were moved sometime in the past? The altitude on the power shed is crudely painted 877′ when the listing show 850′ (current FAA listing show 890′). I found no evidence of a ‘Pole line to N’. There are various runway markers. I did not look for approach or obstruction lights evidence.

Image captions in the gallery below give more details about the various parts of the installation.