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Transcontinental Air Mail Concrete Arrows


Sharkluver

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Hi my fellow Geocachers! I have recently learned about some interesting 'concrete arrows' that may exist along the original air mail routes from the east coast to the west coast. Do any of you know anything more about this interesting part of our history? I am interested in possible coordinates, existing geocaches, etc for these cool relics from our past :)

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Thanks for the link! I have been to that site and it is really confusing and actually doesn't give me any new information.

 

I have already viewed the St. George, Utah arrows via the web and have actually found a geocache (GC46CRB The Transcontinental Airmail Route Challenge) that refers to 'sites' in Nevada, however, these 'sites' only refer to beacons not actual 'concrete arrows'.

 

One site I was on actually said that if you wanted to know more about these arrows to 'ask a geocacher'.... so that is what I am doing :huh:

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Here is a bookmark list of a few geocaches located near concrete arrows.

 

Thank you for that list of caches near 4 arrows! We will be making a trip to Las Vegas for the Geocoinfest in October and plan to see the arrows while we are passing through the area :)

 

Anyone else know of any other arrows or geocaches near arrows?

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Google "Airway Beacons". Wikipedia has a number of sources available as links. There are also Benchmark lists (as bookmark lists) of many of the markers near these arrows/beacons. Many of the arrows are now gone (supposedly all of the beacons were removed for the material for the war effort in the 40's).

 

Thanks for the comment :) I am beginning to believe that ANY of these arrows that are remaining are definitely scarce!

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This is something new to us that we had not heard of before. It might be fun to check some out and learn something new in the process. Thanks for sharing!

I agree, I had never heard of these before. I googled concrete arrows and found some interesting articles to read. I love how geocaching brings to my attention things and places that I would never have heard of otherwise. Thanks so much for sharing this.

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I know that they did exist, and it's my understanding that some of them still exist out west. You can find a list of the markers in the western US here. Note that this isn't my list and I take no responsibility and claim no credit for it.

 

I was aware of ten in my state of Arkansas simply from looking through my benchmarks database. I got bored once and looked them all up on google earth and they all seem to be gone. I didn't see any towers, arrows, or even buildings. From the descriptions I got, they all included the arrow, the light, and the generator house. EJ1855 is the only one of those that looks like it might still be easy to spot the remains of.

 

Take at look at 36.188049, -96.000306 on google earth. That's a point due west of the Tulsa Airport. You can clearly see the word TULSA and an arrow pointing due east. According to the one source I've seen (below), this is a recreation of the arrow used to mark the airport for a visit from Charles Lindbergh back in the 20's. There are no caches in the area at this time, but benchmark GH0942 is nearby. That place has been on my wish list for a while, but I'm always in a hurry when I'm in Tulsa. I may need to plan a trip over just to visit this spot and grab the oldest cache in Oklahoma....

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I am so glad this topic came up on here. I find it very interesting, and started looking up the ones on the list provided by secondgunman. There is one here in Minnesota that is still there,(44 49 08.04329 -092 54 42.46978)near Cottage Grove. It looks like the property owner of the arrow has a sign of some sort erected near the arrow, but no listing of anything about it on the Cottage Grove website.

 

Very interesting!!! I am going to have to try to visit the arrow the next time we get down there.

Edited by jeffrae
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I know that they did exist, and it's my understanding that some of them still exist out west. You can find a list of the markers in the western US here. Note that this isn't my list and I take no responsibility and claim no credit for it.

 

I was aware of ten in my state of Arkansas simply from looking through my benchmarks database. I got bored once and looked them all up on google earth and they all seem to be gone. I didn't see any towers, arrows, or even buildings. From the descriptions I got, they all included the arrow, the light, and the generator house. EJ1855 is the only one of those that looks like it might still be easy to spot the remains of.

 

Take at look at 36.188049, -96.000306 on google earth. That's a point due west of the Tulsa Airport. You can clearly see the word TULSA and an arrow pointing due east. According to the one source I've seen (below), this is a recreation of the arrow used to mark the airport for a visit from Charles Lindbergh back in the 20's. There are no caches in the area at this time, but benchmark GH0942 is nearby. That place has been on my wish list for a while, but I'm always in a hurry when I'm in Tulsa. I may need to plan a trip over just to visit this spot and grab the oldest cache in Oklahoma....

Thank you for providing all this great information on these sites! I have looked at a couple close to where I am located and sadly cannot see on google earth any sign of the concrete arrows :( However, this is a very extensive list and I really do appreciate the link to it!

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I am so glad this topic came up on here. I find it very interesting, and started looking up the ones on the list provided by secondgunman. There is one here in Minnesota that is still there,(44 49 08.04329 -092 54 42.46978)near Cottage Grove. It looks like the property owner of the arrow has a sign of some sort erected near the arrow, but no listing of anything about it on the Cottage Grove website.

 

Very interesting!!! I am going to have to try to visit the arrow the next time we get down there.

 

I only discovered these from a fellow geocacher about a month ago and I am very intrigued by them! I think that a trip to visit an arrow that is close to you is well worth the time :)

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So, Kim-

Are you making any progress finding arrows in your area?

I got several leads on new sites here in Nevada, unfortunately, they are almost all in the central or eastern part of the state...I'm near the western border.

I did recently find two new sites near me, and have visited both. Both have concrete arrows. One was a beacon site, the other was a generator site for a beacon I had previously located. This makes a total of 17 sites I've identified and visited in my neck of the woods.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=b0a58771-bc96-47c9-af23-43b42d3acd0a

 

I've created a photo album of all the sites I've visited on my Facebook page. If you're a FB follower, send me a friend request (you still have my contact info, I assume).

Been having fun learning more and more about the Airmail Route...might actually learn enough to write a book about the Nevada section after I retire.

Nitro929

Edited by Nitro929
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I've heard of the iron compass but never the concrete arrows.

I've heard of concrete boots but never concrete arrows. :bad:

 

I've also heard of cement shoes more than concrete boots.

 

But the iron compass (flying by visually following railroad tracks) was used for Wasington DC to Florida flights.

 

It was also used by the teenager (~15-20 years ago) who flew the single engine plane from Europe to Moscow & landed at the Kremlin. He was jailed for a year.

Edited by wmpastor
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I've never heard of these either and, if not for caching, I'd have never known about them! I Googled "PA Concrete Arrows" to see what would show up in my state and found this discussion in the Benchmark forums from a while ago: IN PA . Looks interesting, never knew these were here! This cache GC17PGQ may, or may not, be related :sunsure: . I would love to go find this since it's only a little over 120-some miles north but, due to health reasons right now, can't walk/hike that far :cry:

 

I'll have to Google more when I have more time :smile:

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So, Kim-

Are you making any progress finding arrows in your area?

I got several leads on new sites here in Nevada, unfortunately, they are almost all in the central or eastern part of the state...I'm near the western border.

I did recently find two new sites near me, and have visited both. Both have concrete arrows. One was a beacon site, the other was a generator site for a beacon I had previously located. This makes a total of 17 sites I've identified and visited in my neck of the woods.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/bookmarks/view.aspx?guid=b0a58771-bc96-47c9-af23-43b42d3acd0a

 

I've created a photo album of all the sites I've visited on my Facebook page. If you're a FB follower, send me a friend request (you still have my contact info, I assume).

Been having fun learning more and more about the Airmail Route...might actually learn enough to write a book about the Nevada section after I retire.

Nitro929

 

Sorry, I have been really busy these past few months and was just reminded of these great pieces of history by a fellow geocacher who posted a geocache in my area at an arrow :)

I was able to visit 2 of these arrows last fall while traveling to Las Vegas for the Mega Event that was held there. I have to say they are simply AMAZING! I am still on the search for more of these great pieces of history! I do not have your contact information anymore, could you share it with me again so I can friend you on faceook?

Thanks!

sharkluver

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I've never heard of these either and, if not for caching, I'd have never known about them! I Googled "PA Concrete Arrows" to see what would show up in my state and found this discussion in the Benchmark forums from a while ago: IN PA . Looks interesting, never knew these were here! This cache GC17PGQ may, or may not, be related :sunsure: . I would love to go find this since it's only a little over 120-some miles north but, due to health reasons right now, can't walk/hike that far :cry:

 

I'll have to Google more when I have more time :smile:

 

Thanks for the link! This will help a lot with our search for more of these unique pieces of history!

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