Zhanna

Jack Fawcett visited this tower near Polkinghorne Spring, Nevada on June 2, 2016. The tower was nearly intact, except for the glass lens (pieces of which he found at the site) and the carbide tanks. There is 4WD vehicle access to within one mile of the tower; from there, a hike up the hill is required. A geocache is hidden at the site as well.

According to website contributor Harvey Hartman, this tower is of the style produced by IDECO (the International Derrick & Equipment Company), as shown in the 1928 brochure IDECO Airway and Airport Beacon Towers.

Approximate coordinates of the tower are N40.228794°, W117.741353°.

Bob Pastore submitted the following evidence of what remains of Beacon 62 in Summit Hill, Pennsylvania (approximate coordinates: N40.819438°, W75.874985°). He writes:

62 is just south of Summit Hill, PA—a little town that the star on the chart is just touching. 64 is on Blue Mountain on the Lehigh Water Gap near Palmerton, PA. It appears as this is a CLE — NY or ORD — NY route.

As a retired airline pilot I recall flying these routes using modern navigation aids and they went right over Summit Hill and Palmerton.

If you look at the chart, note that there is an airway which comes out of Allentown VOR (the 291 degree radial noted on the chart), a modern day navigation aid put in place in the late 40s. They too are almost obsolete what with GPS. The airway is from the Milford, PA area and note that it is just below the arrows of the beacon airway. Not too far off as this was the principal route from CLE, DTW, ORD to NYC.

Michael LaRose has submitted the following photos from the former site of Beacon 10 on the New York—Boston airway (NGS PID LX4898).

Michael writes:

[The site] lies next to a modern commercial communication tower right next to a condo complex. I also found another USGS marker nearby which I presume was placed to replace the tower upon its demolition. The concrete pad is really the only evidence left and I walked right past it at first because it is quite overgrown. There is a well right next to the pad but appears to predate the beacon based on its construction.

I think the well is the one referred to in the datasheet description for BAKER, the triangulation station at the site. (The marker he found is BAKER RM 2.)

Anchor points for the beacon tower legs

More scenes from the site

Jack Fawcett, a retired Nevada surveyor and pilot, submitted these photos of the airway tower south of Battle Mountain, Nevada. The location is N40.435814°, W117.163028°.

He writes:

There is no road to the site. It is out in the flat sagebrush. There is no light or arrow but the tower is intact. There’s maintenance writing inside from the ’30s, and tubing for the acetylene lamp.

Roger Helm has submitted the following photos and information about a beacon north of Plainfield, Illinois.

There is a beacon that was north of Plainfield, Illinois, that was saved in 2014 and moved about four miles by the Plainfield Historical Society to the Railroad Museum located on Illinois Route 126 near the Du Page River and the CN rail line (formally the E,J, & E). It was located on Book Road, between 119th street and 127th Street (coordinates: N 41.659808° W 88.184783°).

Interestingly, Google’s Street View from 2012 shows the beacon in its old location, while the satellite view (no date given, but obviously newer) shows the beacon at the rail museum (coordinates: N 41.609017°, W 88.211445°).

The beacon may have been No. 37 as shown on this map: Air Navigation Map No. 9; Chicago, Ill. to Iowa City, Iowa; 1929/1933

… or No. 25 as shown on this map: Airway Map No. 111; Chicago Ill. to Milwaukee Wis.; 1930

… or something else entirely. Please comment if you have any thoughts!

Ray Hays has submitted the following photo of his uncle, Victor Hays (born 1909), with Beacon 3 A along the Portland—Spokane Route. This beacon sat atop Beacon Rock in what is now Beacon Rock State Park, along the Columbia River. Beacon Rock is a prominent basalt plug rising to an elevation of nearly 850 feet. A trail of boardwalks and switchbacks provides hikers a path to the summit.

Not much is known about the photo, but Ray suspects that it was taken before World War II. It is the only photo of the beacon that exists in the state park’s archives. I was unable to find any other images of the beacon online.

Beacon Rock has an interesting history. Surprisingly (or at least I was surprised by the coincidence!), it was named Beacon Rock long before the airway beacon was placed there. In fact, it was originally designated Beacon Rock by Lewis and Clark in 1806. By some point in the 1800s—sources vary on the date—the feature was more commonly known as Castle Rock. Then in 1915, the feature’s name was officially changed back to Beacon Rock by the USGS Board on Geographic Names.

The airway beacon was in place at least as early as 1931, as it appears on an airway map from 1931. (It can also be seen on the maps from 1933 and 1934).

The beacon was first observed as an intersection station by the Coast & Geodetic Survey in 1938. And it was destroyed before 2004, as reported by Geocachers and the U.S. Power Squadron. Ray Hays’ friend Ken Cole remembers the beacon up on the rock and thinks it blew over in a bad wind storm in the 1950s. He is quite sure it was before the Columbus Day storm of 1962.

Recently I was contacted by a man who has purchased an old airway beacon light. He is wondering if anyone can provide details about it, or some tips on how he might go about finding more information about it.

The plate on the base is illegible. Lettering on the drum says “Department of Commerce.” That’s all the information he has at this time. He has no idea how to go about determining where it came from, nor do I. Can anyone help?

These images were submitted by Reese Patterson, who found them in the Fort Pike State Park collection at the Louisiana State Archives. He used the beacon photos from the 1940s in conjunction with Google Satellite imagery to pinpoint the location of the beacon foundation at N 30.166530° W 89.737625°.

Interestingly, the beacon’s foundation also serves as the setting for a reference mark disk, PIKE RM 3 (NGS PID BH1160). According to the reference mark’s datasheet, the beacon’s designation was NEW ORLEANS—ATLANTA AIRWAY BEACON NO. 2. It was still standing in 1954, but by 1963 it had been destroyed. The page for this reference mark on Geocaching.com (BH1160) shows close-up photos of the disk, although as of this date, no geocachers’ photographs show much of the area surrounding the platform.

The following three images were taken after the beacon’s removal, but they show the area in fine detail.