Yeah, the only ones that I could find along the San Diego to Yuma route was one by the border and maybe one northeast of Jacumba. There are others closer to San Diego but look like they might be on private property or non-existent.
CONCRETE ARROW QUEST : Search for Transcontinental Airway Beacons
- Thread starter wayoflife
- Start date
Yeah, the only ones that I could find along the San Diego to Yuma route was one by the border and maybe one northeast of Jacumba. There are others closer to San Diego but look like they might be on private property or non-existent.
OverlanderJK
Resident Smartass
I might be headed out east this weekend. If i do I'll check the jacumba one out.
Looking at it again the one south of the 8/Julian is out at corral canyon.
Last edited:
SaddleTramp
Member
Yep, I did the same, just spent 3 hours scanning local Google maps and a few others areas. See a couple up by Mesquite and around the Blue Diamond area that we may have to try and track down! Thanks for posting this up Eddie, love the history and background like this.
pastorwug
New member
My wife and I went out exploring for the closest "arrow" near San Luis Obispo and found locked gates at every entrance we could come up with - so we took the Pozo Saloon route off over High Mountain Pass to Lake Lopez and found a lot of people doing the same today.
It amazes me when I find stock Honda Civics and Chrysler Mini Vans back on dirt roads marked for 4WD only - guess they see it as an adventure as well. We were sure we would have to winch someone out but never had to.
Beautiful day out on the local trails.
It amazes me when I find stock Honda Civics and Chrysler Mini Vans back on dirt roads marked for 4WD only - guess they see it as an adventure as well. We were sure we would have to winch someone out but never had to.
Beautiful day out on the local trails.
jelliott076
New member
Uh oh! Looks like the makings of a Corral Canyon Run! Give me a call if you want a wing man on your search. I'm needing to get out.
Be careful tooling aroung Jacumba. A lot of that area is private property and as my buddy Mike and I discovered this weekend, they have no problem shooting at you for being on their property. Most of the areas we were driving around won't be fenced off and don't have but a single sign every quarter mile.
Last edited:
Most of the sheds below the towers housed gasoline generators that powered rotating electric or acetylene beacons.
OverlanderJK
Resident Smartass
So I was searching for arrows close to San Diego and came across this map. The map that jeepfan posted seems to be all locations of beacons but this map seems to be just the locations of the arrows. There is a lot less on this map.
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=213732418950957933334.0004e1e9dedbfbfa2281f
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=213732418950957933334.0004e1e9dedbfbfa2281f
Skid_Kid
New member
Good find!
Nice find but it looks like there aren't any arrows out in the SD area on this one. I wonder if it's only marking off ones that are still around.
OverlanderJK
Resident Smartass
Looking on google maps of the one tony posted I didn't see any arrows at the locations. Not sure if they were there or if it was so,e other type of station or what but the ones on that other map all show up. Guess I need to road trip to find out for sure. :yup:
pastorwug
New member
The Arrow Quest Continues : Search for Transcontinental Airway Beacons - Part 2
Continuing our quest to find more of these arrows, we met up with our good friend Carl and headed back out to the Nevada Desert to pick up where we left off. As before, we found that many of the sites have long been lost to history and have little evidence that a concrete arrow or tower had ever been there before. However, we did find a few gems worth sharing and I hope you'll enjoy seeing them now. Being that the best one was also the first one we visited, I will work backwards and save it for last.
First, here are a few more old photos that I found on internet that shows what these pilots were flying back when these airway beacons were necessary.
Again, I'll recap our day out exploring the Northern Nevada Desert by starting from the end and with the sun just setting over the mountains. Here, we reached our final airway beacon site for the trip.
Unfortunately, there was little left of it other than the crumbling remains of a concrete arrow.
Other debris could still be found like bits of corrugated steel and rusty conduit but, that's about it.
Of course, we may have been able to get to the last beacon sooner had we not said hello to some of the locals.
Or, been side tracked by this cool frozen trough that we found along the way.
Of course, the reason why we stopped at the trough was because we could see it from the airway beacon site we were exploring on top of a near by hill.
While the tower foundation was still here and with the nubs of the tower itself still sticking out of the concrete, most of the arrow itself had been destroyed and, from what we could tell, pushed off the hill top.
Here's a shot of what we believe was the arrow point.
You can see here that a little bit of orange paint still remains on it.
Looking around the immediate area, we found a bunch of old discarded bulbs.
Digging around, I also found this old fuse.
But, it was Carl that found the real prize out in the distant - pieces of the red lens!
This would have been a part of the secondary light that would have warned pilots that there was no emergency landing strip here.
View looking east in the general direction of the next beacon.
A parting shot of our Jeeps before heading out to our next destination.
Before we found the beacon site on top of the hill, we crossed a long valley and came across a well built brick building out in the middle of nowhere.
Apparently, at one point and time, this was a Bell Telephone relay station.
Unfortunately, vandals have had their way with it but surprisingly, it was still in pretty good shape and way better than anything you would find out in California.
Earlier in the day, we stopped over at very interesting airway beacon site that had very little left of anything but, intrigued me because of what I saw from Google Earth. If you look real carefully at this screen shot, you can just make out what look like concentric circles.
Need some help seeing it? Have a look again with the aid of yellow lines to draw them out.
At the site itself, all we could find were busted up bits of concrete and, if you followed them, you could see how they were arranged to make up these circles in the sand.
Just a bit of the paint that originally colored the concrete can still be seen.
Looking west from here, you can see the hill where yet another beacon site is located and, where our journey for the day began.
Through all my research, I had found that there might be another airway beacon tower in the Northern Nevada desert and I was determined to find it. Needless to say, this is where we started off our day. Here's a shot of Cindy and Carl working their way up a hillside.
Simply outstanding!! Not only were we able to find it and in amazingly good shape, we were surprised to find that we could actually still drive up to it too.
Looking overhead, we could see a stream of airplanes following the flight path.
Being closer to town, there was more vandalism done to this beacon tower than the one we had found a week before but, it was still in pretty good shape considering the circumstances. Here you can see the last digit of the original 216 that was painted on the side of the shed.
Time to climb up and give the beacon a look.
Back on the ground, we found a lot of broken clear lens pieces.
Again, taking a moment to imagine.
Taking it a step further.
I hope you all enjoyed our continuing journey to explore and seek out the wonderful things you can still find out in the Northern Nevada desert. If you've been transfixed in finding these historical Transcontinental Airway beacons the way we have, we wish you the best of luck and hope you have a great time on your quest. Of course, if you are able to find any of these sites, I would ask that you please leave it as is and do not take any artifacts left behind so that others can enjoy it as well. Until next time
Click on the link below to see our subsequent Arrow Quests:
The Arrow Quest Part 3
Continuing our quest to find more of these arrows, we met up with our good friend Carl and headed back out to the Nevada Desert to pick up where we left off. As before, we found that many of the sites have long been lost to history and have little evidence that a concrete arrow or tower had ever been there before. However, we did find a few gems worth sharing and I hope you'll enjoy seeing them now. Being that the best one was also the first one we visited, I will work backwards and save it for last.
First, here are a few more old photos that I found on internet that shows what these pilots were flying back when these airway beacons were necessary.
Again, I'll recap our day out exploring the Northern Nevada Desert by starting from the end and with the sun just setting over the mountains. Here, we reached our final airway beacon site for the trip.
Unfortunately, there was little left of it other than the crumbling remains of a concrete arrow.
Other debris could still be found like bits of corrugated steel and rusty conduit but, that's about it.
Of course, we may have been able to get to the last beacon sooner had we not said hello to some of the locals.
Or, been side tracked by this cool frozen trough that we found along the way.
Of course, the reason why we stopped at the trough was because we could see it from the airway beacon site we were exploring on top of a near by hill.
While the tower foundation was still here and with the nubs of the tower itself still sticking out of the concrete, most of the arrow itself had been destroyed and, from what we could tell, pushed off the hill top.
Here's a shot of what we believe was the arrow point.
You can see here that a little bit of orange paint still remains on it.
Looking around the immediate area, we found a bunch of old discarded bulbs.
Digging around, I also found this old fuse.
But, it was Carl that found the real prize out in the distant - pieces of the red lens!
This would have been a part of the secondary light that would have warned pilots that there was no emergency landing strip here.
View looking east in the general direction of the next beacon.
A parting shot of our Jeeps before heading out to our next destination.
Before we found the beacon site on top of the hill, we crossed a long valley and came across a well built brick building out in the middle of nowhere.
Apparently, at one point and time, this was a Bell Telephone relay station.
Unfortunately, vandals have had their way with it but surprisingly, it was still in pretty good shape and way better than anything you would find out in California.
Earlier in the day, we stopped over at very interesting airway beacon site that had very little left of anything but, intrigued me because of what I saw from Google Earth. If you look real carefully at this screen shot, you can just make out what look like concentric circles.
Need some help seeing it? Have a look again with the aid of yellow lines to draw them out.
At the site itself, all we could find were busted up bits of concrete and, if you followed them, you could see how they were arranged to make up these circles in the sand.
Just a bit of the paint that originally colored the concrete can still be seen.
Looking west from here, you can see the hill where yet another beacon site is located and, where our journey for the day began.
Through all my research, I had found that there might be another airway beacon tower in the Northern Nevada desert and I was determined to find it. Needless to say, this is where we started off our day. Here's a shot of Cindy and Carl working their way up a hillside.
Simply outstanding!! Not only were we able to find it and in amazingly good shape, we were surprised to find that we could actually still drive up to it too.
Looking overhead, we could see a stream of airplanes following the flight path.
Being closer to town, there was more vandalism done to this beacon tower than the one we had found a week before but, it was still in pretty good shape considering the circumstances. Here you can see the last digit of the original 216 that was painted on the side of the shed.
Time to climb up and give the beacon a look.
Back on the ground, we found a lot of broken clear lens pieces.
Again, taking a moment to imagine.
Taking it a step further.
I hope you all enjoyed our continuing journey to explore and seek out the wonderful things you can still find out in the Northern Nevada desert. If you've been transfixed in finding these historical Transcontinental Airway beacons the way we have, we wish you the best of luck and hope you have a great time on your quest. Of course, if you are able to find any of these sites, I would ask that you please leave it as is and do not take any artifacts left behind so that others can enjoy it as well. Until next time
Click on the link below to see our subsequent Arrow Quests:
The Arrow Quest Part 3
OverlanderJK
Resident Smartass
Too cool. I need to get up there. :thumb:
Great pics. 
Anytime my friend.
BTW - there's a big one down south, a 50 footer that I've found and really want to check out soon.
From what I've heard, there are a few that are getting or have been restored back to their original condition. I believe there's one in Grants, NM. Of course, this sucks being that I was just there and didn't know about it at the time :rolleyes2:
In all fairness, most of them were dismantled and recycled during WWII. Many that doubled as airfields are still there today. The ones in close proximity to urban areas are the ones that have fallen by the wayside. The ones we found on our first trip were pretty far out in the desert - far from anyone and still in fair to great condition.