U.S. Air Mail Beacons Across Nevada - Fernley to Beowawe

ski3pin

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This is an ongoing endeavor of ours, searching for what remains of the lighted transcontinental airway route between Fernley and Beowawe - remote country. If you are into history or an early aviation buff, this may be of interest to you. The adventure - up to this point - is now posted to our blog and can be found here -

U.S. Air Mail Beacons Across Nevada - Fernley to Beowawe

Caution, this is long with much detail. Start your engines!
 
Beowawe, now there’s a place that kinda falls into the “Can’t get there from here” category. Spent a New Years Eve in Crescent Valley many years ago. Thanks for jogging up the memories for me, and sharing your trip/story.
 
Trying to figure out where these mostly small installations are is an enjoyable map study project. Much like what we had to do in mineral exploration field work: Job #1 is locate and sample old production.

To add a bit of historical background, my wife's maternal grandfather was a flyer so much from the old school that his initial flight training was in balloons during WWI. He shifted to fixed wing piloting and flew the mail across the West for some years in the 1920s. He had a number of forced landings and was reported missing for several days on 3 different occasions. In 1928 he was hired to fly Ford Trimotors for the predecessor to TWA, an erstwhile operator named Transcontinental Air Transport. Starting in 1929, TAT had an odd New York to Los Angeles passenger flight plan: a 48 hour trip with flights by day connecting to trains by night. TAT was derisively called "Take A Train". A merger formed what was later renamed TWA in 1930 and all-flight transcontinental scheduled passenger service began in that year. Captain Earl Fleet flew for TAT and TWA until the late 1950s, the last few years assigned to the over-the-pole San Francisco to London route in 4-engine Constellations, one of which he emergency-landed (engine afire) at a former bomber base in Cut Bank, Montana very late in his career. Captain Fleet was one of those guys who combined flair and fearlessness with daring which he exhibited by always driving Cadillacs and driving 100 mph pretty much everywhere he went, even in retirement.
 
thx for sharing. great country and an excellent reason to poke around and explore
 
LuckyDan said:
Beowawe, now there’s a place that kinda falls into the “Can’t get there from here” category. Spent a New Years Eve in Crescent Valley many years ago. Thanks for jogging up the memories for me, and sharing your trip/story.
LuckyDan, thanks for the comment! We love to try and step back and imagine what these places like Beowawe were like prior to be passed by with the alignment of Interstate 80. Thanks for the share of memories.
 
Casa Escarlata Robles Too said:
Thanks Ski for the great history lesson.As usual you have put a lot of
work into this report.Much appreciated.
Frank
It's still fun or I wouldn't do it. Thanks Frank!
 
ckent323 said:
There was a route along the coast in California as well as across the Mojave Desert I think a couple of the concrete arrows and even a few tower bases survive. There are more in other states.

https://sometimes-interesting.com/2013/12/04/concrete-arrows-and-the-u-s-airmail-beacon-system/

https://www.dreamsmithphotos.com/arrow/arrows.html
Absolutely Craig, thanks for adding these! Tying this to Foy's post above, the beginnings of air mail across the United States was a catalyst for commercial aviation. The first air mail pilots were U.S. Army Air Corp and then, for a couple years, the Post Office had their own planes and pilots. It the late 1920's the Department of Commerce offered contracts for flying the mail on the various airway routes across the U.S.. The route Julie & I are searching on was Contract Air Mail route 18 (CAM #18). Boeing Air Transport was the carrier. These early companies grew into the airlines and companies we know so well.
 
Concrete arrows still exist in Walnut Creek, CA, not far from where I live. I could pinpoint the location, but I won't spoil the fun of you finding them for yourself.
 
ski3pin said:
Absolutely Craig, thanks for adding these! Tying this to Foy's post above, the beginnings of air mail across the United States was a catalyst for commercial aviation. The first air mail pilots were U.S. Army Air Corp and then, for a couple years, the Post Office had their own planes and pilots. It the late 1920's the Department of Commerce offered contracts for flying the mail on the various airway routes across the U.S.. The route Julie & I are searching on was Contract Air Mail route 18 (CAM #18). Boeing Air Transport was the carrier. These early companies grew into the airlines and companies we know so well.


Once again, I spent an enjoyable visit down the rabbit hole, looking at maps. Thanks Ski!
 
Knowing how much I enjoy nonfiction and history in general, my wife bought me "Mavericks of the Sky: The First Daring Pilots of the US Air Mail", by Barry Rosenburg. The facts that they started off flying WWI Jennys and referred to themselves as The Suicide Club tells you a lot about the history, particularly the early history, of the USPS Air Mail service. It's been a few years since I read it, but my recollection is that it doesn't delve too deeply into the beacon/emergency landing grounds subject matter.

Foy
 
FYI, I updated our blog story on the airway beacons with information I found about the Intermediate Landing Fields (DOCILF) from the archives of the Airway Bulletins from the 1930's. Many thanks to Charlotte from Arrows Across America for sending me this information. Oh boy, more stuff to go out looking for! :)
 
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