These’re
peculiar concrete markings that have amazingly been spotted all across America,
prompting hikers and travelers to curiosity what on Earth they could mean and
where they are pointing to. However; these’re massive arrows, which can measure
up to 70ft in length, are actually a forgotten remnant of a bygone age. Dotted
between scrubland, placed in apparently random spots, these giant arrows were
once markers for early airmail flights across the US - forming the first
land-based navigation system in the world.
The strong concrete arrows were
placed at the base of lit beacons nearby airways, showing pilots the direction
they needed to fly in to reach the next stop-off to deliver mail. Well, Airmail
in the United States started as early as 1911, with the first official flight
departing Petaluma, California, and arriving in Santa Rosa, California. As the
flights got longer, with more frequent stop-offs, so the beacons and arrows
were placed to help pilots on their way.
After World
War I, the United States Postal Service started to use surplus war planes for
mail delivery and several were flown by former army pilots. The huge arrows
started to be placed across the country, from time to time at 10-mile
intervals, from 1924. Moreover, painted bright yellow and placed alongside
beacon with a gas light at the top, the concept was that the markers could be
seen for a distance of up to 10 miles so pilots could find their way. In the
summer of 1924, they stretched from Wyoming to Ohio and by the following year,
the arrows had reached New York. By 1929, the arrows could direct flights all
the way across the width of America.
The main New York to San Francisco air
route stretched from New York to San Francisco, following the yellow concrete
trail. In the days before radio and
satellite communications, the arrows were a way to ensure pilots could find
their way, even in poor weather. Though the arrows are now long-forgotten, with
numerous lost forever, there’re fans who, having stumbled upon an arrow or two
in the countryside, have in progress mapping those concrete markers that have
been left behind. Retired couple Brian and Charlotte Smith were referred an
email which piqued their curiosity and have been pursuing down the arrows ever
since.
The email
playfully explained: “Every so often”, regularly in the vast deserts of the
American Southwest, a hiker or a backpacker will run across somewhat puzzling,
a big concrete arrow, as much as 70 feet in length, sitting in the middle of
scrub-covered nowhere. The couple say they have found 102 arrows so far and
have set up their website Arrows Across America as part of their photography
site dreamsmithphotos.com so fellow fans can share their own pictures and help map
where the remaining arrows are.The Smiths told MailOnline Travel:
We’ve located
102 arrows or portions of arrows, some are even badly deteriorated and not much
is left. Our interest grew out of an email circulating in August 2013; we
craved to know where they were, and set out to find them. We’ve managed to take
photographs of about 40, and have a trip planned this fall to take more
photographs of some that we were unable to get to last spring. Sooner or later
we hope to have photographs of all the arrows that we have positioned, but time
and money will directive how long that will take us. Before our research we
knew nothing about airways, beacons or concrete arrows, it has been a marvelous
journey of discovery and we cannot believe that all of this has been
"forgotten".
