The Abandoned Airways - How Airmail Transformed America

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All across America, thousands of unusual concrete arrows are hidden high upon hills, in deep woodlands and arid deserts. They are the last remains of a vast network that once guides planes across America in the early days of aviation. I went looking for them.
Arrows Across America: www.dreamsmithphotos.com/arrow/
I'll post some art & extra fun bonus scenes on the Patreon! / calumraasay
My new merch website! calumgillies.art
00:00 - Introduction
04:42 - Pioneering Early Airmail
08:51 - The First Airways
10:20 - Lighting the Airways
13:11 - The Airways Division
14:55 - The Beacon Station Equipment & Layout
20:47 - Growing & Maintaining the Airways
22:58 - The End of an Era
25:21 - Tracking Down the Beacons
26:40 - Nevada Beacon Sites
29:03 - Arrows in St George, Utah
31:02 - Beacons of New Mexico
33:35 - A Reconstructed Beacon Site
38:10 - The Couple Tracking Down Americas Beacons
41:19 - Waffling on a Bit
Twitter......................► / calumraasay
Instagram................► / calumraasay
Website....................►calumgillies.com
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[@RoblolGames]

On honeymoon, leaves wife behind for giant arrows... classic!

[@CalumRaasay]

The Calum classic

[@JanTuts]

Then again, by producing multiple videos about various locations throughout the honeymoon, most of the trip becomes deductable as a business expense. ;)

[@seldoon_nemar]

@@CalumRaasay Hopefully it's a sign things are _pointed in the right direction_ with the marriage that she's so tolerant 😂

[@samholdsworth420]

Callus calum

[@richardcash869]

That’s rank calumny. Take it back

[@WouterWeggelaar]

Over 45 minutes of documentary gold! heck yes! The amount of work to get that arrow animation....zooming to the same size and pointing each arrow to the left...my gosh

[@CalumRaasay]

Next video I want no animations, I’m animated out 😂

[@WouterWeggelaar]

@@CalumRaasay So worth it though!

[@echelonrank3927]

yeh its very inspiring but omg its making his hair turn grey

[@CalumRaasay]

@@echelonrank3927 Hell yeah, I want that silver fox look

[@c.smythe8905]

Excellent video, well worth the effort. Thanks

[@_autoverse]

This so could have easily been a regurgitated infographic vid (I know it’s not your style). As ever I appreciate the research you’ve undertaken, including speaking to the folks behind that website that documents the arrows. It was cool to see the landscapes the arrows occupy from your perspective.

[@CalumRaasay]

Thank you! At first I thought this would be a perfect short video but as it went on I thought it deserved more!

[@cyberleaderandy1]

​@@CalumRaasay it absolutely did and i ended up finding and buying an old email envelope showing a tower and an airmail field in California. This sort of research deserves to be on mainstream television.

[@chriskortan1530]

I'm impressed that while traversing a quarter of the United States you were able to stick to your plan and timetable. Another excellent video!

[@CalumRaasay]

Same here - and not to mention in January when roads and whole areas where closing left and right due to the weather!

[@RowanHawkins]

This is amazing I've read a lot about how aircraft navigation works now, but never thoutgh about how it worked before radio was the way, encompasing probably 30 years of time. I wonder if reference that map with the current ifr routing map and see how much overlap there is. There is a famous Midair collision that occurred over the Grand Canyon that changed completely how.long distance flying was done.

[@chiablo]

I grew up near St. George and have driven this same route a number of times. I’d never known these arrows existed and now I want to go find some of my own. I am so happy you got a chance to visit the beautiful American desert and pay tribute to its history and geography.

[@fssofdeath]

This is a wildly interesting topic, I have been working in aviation for 20 years and didn’t know about this. I will now look into it more and see what I can find in Canada about the subject. Thanks a bunch! As always, your videos are the pinnacle of interesting and quality!

[@CalumRaasay]

I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Nothing I love more than being able to share something new with people. Thanks again for watching

[@SeaWasp]

I was happy to see that Vancouver and Victoria were included in the maps shown, and was hoping I could feasibly find one of these in my back yard

[@grundewa]

⁠@@SeaWasp I grew up in the interior of BC, and as a teenager we would sometimes see a “lighthouse” rotating somewhere in the next valley over (where there was no town). I always wondered what it was but now I have a serious lead!!

[@elmersantos2262]

​@@SeaWasp:D:D🇧🇫

[@preonmodel9906]

Imagine being the pilot, taking off at 11PM … maybe in bad weather and you’ve got a 600 mile trip to do… amazing people. Hope that this brings to life some stories from relatives of these brave pilots. Thanks Calum !!

[@donalddodson7365]

Thank you, Calum! Your intriguing projects are always informative and interesting. You have rekindled my interest in another road trip (my first since COVID), this time from San Diego, CA USA to Vancouver, BC Canada.

[@bikingnutcase0]

I completely agree, as you said at 44:57 having a "hook" or a mission in mind when exploring a place makes the experience so much richer. My wife and I flew to Chicago, hired a car and drove route 66 for our honeymoon. I normally detest Holidays, but having that purpose behind it made it one of the best things we've ever done!

[@raym3358]

I live in Williams, Arizona where that museum tower originally stood, and now I want nothing more than to find where it stood even if the arrow is gone. Just like with the TC-497, I really appreciate getting to learn such incredibly interesting things around in my home state. Thank you!

[@ayarnold9523]

Seeing Calum, walking on the arrows, I was amazed just how small they actually are. Another Interesting video as always.

[@kaboombox1581]

Excellent video. I have vague childhood memories of my father (an engineer for the US Army) explaining the flashing lights we regularly saw in the evening during a long road trip in the 1960s as being part of the airways system. Fascinating to learn more about this part of aviation history. Side note: If there’s patches of snow on the ground your chances of running into a snake is probably nil.

[@roytait]

So, for your first wedding anniversary are you planning to visit the concrete calibration markers at the Photogrammetric Test Range near Casa Grande, Arizona? :-)

[@CalumRaasay]

Haha now there’s a suggestion - or maybe another land train? Just don’t tell my wife!

[@666t]

Corona

[@roytait]

@@CalumRaasay or perhaps the WW1 concrete structures and trains on a "tiny remote island" that you may be familiar with

[@Shipwright1918]

The legacy of these stations is alive and well with NDB and VOR radio stations, basically swaps the visual light beacon with a radio beacon and receivers inside the plane. Incidentally, the Lionel train company made a working model beacon based on beacons such as these.

[@juliahaynie764]

Thanks for sharing this piece of history with us! My grandfather loved flying and finding these from the air!

[@kethdredd]

I have never even considered doing Patreon. Your videos are so well researched and so well done, I felt I had to support you. Fantastic job on a fascinating topic!

[@CalumRaasay]

Appreciated!

[@TheFilmFatale]

45 minutes on the Joy of Finding. …yet another masterclass Show-and-Tell video…THANK YOU!

[@andreasheld2362]

Calum is the master of wonderful, kinda obscure topics. Grazing us lurkers with another wonderful documentary. And wedding photos! 😀

[@rolux4853]

How amazing would it be to have a flight simulator with this? Would be so much more fun to me than flying airliners over oceans with autopilot. Flying a route with visual clues in vintage airplanes sounds amazing to me!

[@cyberleaderandy1]

Fascinating stuff. I work in the aviation industry and all these old facets of the flying past just tick a lit of boxes 😊

[@nikitanugent7165]

I was so excited when you reached the St. George's arrow at the 30:00 mark. In 2015 I did my first big road trip through the entire western US, and I stopped at this arrow (thanks Atlas Obscura). I didn't have a smartphone at the time, just a list of GPS coordinates for a few arrows that I had prepared before my trip and a basic GPS that could only give me direction and distance. It was great fun driving around until I figured I was "close enough" to get out and look for it. I was happy to find that I had "stumbled" across one of the better arrows to visit, with the informational plaque.

[@tavimaanpaa7832]

Truly a high quality video as always, well done!

[@nikostrand8570]

A pleasure as always! Thanks for making my evening Calum. Looking forward to watch the video :)

[@CalumRaasay]

Thank you niko, always appreciate comments like this!

[@Nx--7567]

This is really impressive work. Keep it up! Congratulations on your marriage!

[@CalumRaasay]

Thank you so much!

[@SnappyWasHere]

I’m so happy you got to find a complete one. I love adventures like this and when you find exactly what you wanted to see it’s very satisfying.

[@TealCheetah]

I hope you and your wife enjoyed the southwest desert. I may be biased from growing up in the four corners, but, once you get past everything being shades of brown/tan/red, I find the desert to be magically beautiful.

[@AviatingWithMel]

Great video, I have been aware of the existence of these arrows (being a pilot and aviation nerd) but never really looked into them. I never knew they had actual beacons and were manned! Oh and yes - lovely wedding photos.

[@markboyce5261]

Calum, my daughter knew I love maps, and Google Maps and Satellite Maps are tremendous to a guy like me in my late 60s. I was aware of the arrows from a documentary on television, but you gave so much more information than they did. Many thanks to you, the Smiths, and especially your bride who agreed to make your American West part of your honeymoon! I subscribed to see what else you have been up to.

[@clownearound5751]

Phenomenal video Calum, thank you for sharing this. I’m working my way through your content at the moment and really enjoying it. These parts of history are very interesting and it’s great seeing the dedication of people to preserve this for people to see. Keep up the great work and best wishes

[@Nerd3927]

What a wonderful documentary! Your videos are a class on it's own! Really outstanding work again!

[@ghomerhust]

according to records our family has been able to dig up, my great-grandfather, Roy Hust, was the first person in the state of Nebraska to have a PRIVATE pilot's license. no military, no commercial, a private license. i remember that he had an old Pup aircraft before i was born in 1980. because of his flying, my grandfather Byron, who had very poor eyes, was big into RC aircraft, up until just a few years ago, well after his 80th birthday. i myself got into RC in a big way, but not in the air. by the way, the quality of this video is absolutely incredible! keep up the good work mate, this is every bit as good as a high end studio's production!

[@mikes.4136]

This is very cool. I was not aware of these concrete arrows and their associated beacon towers. Truly fascinating!

[@MrJest2]

I'm old enough that I remember as a child these beacons, as my folks drove through the Southern California deserts. I remember my father pointing out the rotating lights in the distance, and as we got closer we could see the towers. What is funny is that I don't remember where we were going or why, but the beacons and the concept of "airways" fascinated me. I'd always been "aviation-crazy", which culminated in me joining the Air Force when I became a young adult. I still love aviation to this day... And incidentally, I live just off Route 66, in Arizona. 😋

[@scotrick3072]

I love these arrows! After the world has ended, future archeologists will be like: WTF, with these arrows? Because they will have eight feelers and absolute direction with their magnetic sensing cores, they'll be like: were they idiots? Arrow fanatics?

[@CalumRaasay]

This is exactly my thought- in hundreds of years will someone stubble across one of these arrows and wonder what they were? Reminds me of the great Ozymandias (but not the one we all know): In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone, Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws The only shadow that the Desert knows:- "I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone, "The King of Kings; this mighty City shows The wonders of my hand."- The City's gone,- Naught but the Leg remaining to disclose The site of this forgotten Babylon. We wonder - and some Hunter may express Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace, He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess What powerful but unrecorded race Once dwelt in that annihilated place.

[@scotrick3072]

@@CalumRaasay Nice. Thank you.

[@uzetaab]

This was fascinating. I already knew of these arrows, but you told me so much about them that I didn't already know. Thanks!

[@muhammad2086]

That giant Kronk scared me. Lol

[@CalumRaasay]

It’s all coming together

[@Tclans]

Once again a very interesting well researched documentary that tickles the imagination. Thank you for your fascination about obscure and odd things!

[@peterconnan5631]

Your videos are fantastic, so often about things I had known nothing about! Thank you very much, I really appreciate the effort that goes into each of them.

[@seldoon_nemar]

I knew about these, I knew what they were, but I still dove right in here because it's you and I'm going to actually learn about it, and not get the bar trivia style of video. Keep up the good work

[@valblome4913]

I now have an overwhelming desire to create a flight plan along one of these routes. It would be so much fun to fly with old school pilotage techniques from arrow to arrow. I had actually read about these arrows in textbooks, but I never gave much thought to them. You brought so much enthusiasm and intrigue to this topic! This video was captivating, and I'm envisioning what this system would have looked like from the air. I bet it was absolutelly beautiful at night!

[@ZGryphon]

I don't know whether my little hometown in northern Maine was ever on one of the federal airways (seems doubtful), but we have an airport that was built as a New Deal project in the 1930s, and even today it has a beacon tower that very much resembles the one in your drawing. Unlike the airway beacons, its light alternates between white and _green,_ which, if you're curious about the niceties of American aerodrome signaling, indicates that it marks the location of a non-military land airfield that's equipped with runway lighting. :) Until not that long ago ago, we had another relic of the pioneer days of aviation in town that had a sort of charm similar to the airway arrows. Like quite a few towns in this part of Maine, this was a paper mill company town. The mill complex stood on a hill overlooking the rest of town, and the roof of the building at the highest point on the hill sported the name of the town in huge yellow letters along with an arrow pointing north, for the information of any intrepid fliers who might happen to be passing by. Sadly, the mill shut down for good in 2008, and sometime during the next few years, one of the various owners who picked over the bankruptcy estate had that building torn down. :(

[@WoodsPrecisionArms]

I never knew this - ever. No show on this subject of old air craft and flying - which I have watched HOURS of content - never seen these arrows. Outstanding!

[@CalumRaasay]

Hope you liked my wedding photos 😉 Calum15 to get 15% off your Holzkern order! 👉 www.world.holzkern.com/en_world/calum

[@ddegn]

You both had nice wedding dresses.😈 Marriage is fantastic. I hope your marriage is happy and long.

[@Maxislithium]

Congratulations on your marriage and thank you for this wonderful video.

[@BatCaveOz]

I thought I knew quite a bit about this topic. (I didn't) Thank you, Calum. The depth of your research is so much better than most other on-line content creators, it is always a real treat.

[@AlmightyJ97]

I love this channel. There's no place else where I would get into a bunch of arrows on the ground enough to enjoy a 45 minute documentary about it. Absolute legend.

[@Scott-kl6ej]

@21:55 I caught "Green Mountain Power" when the newspaper passed thru. As a Vermonter - The Green Mountain State - I was surprised to see that, so I backed up and paused... Not only is that in fact from my local paper all those years ago, but 2 of the towers mentioned are in my town and neighboring town respectively. I knew that the FAA currently has radio equipment on Robbins Mtn, but never knew it dated back this far. The 2nd location on Stimson I didn't know about. I knew of the mountain, but not that there was a tower on it once... As you said, Google Earth is an amazing resource, so after about 10min of "flying" over that area on the map I was actually able to locate the metal tower poking thru the trees. All these years later it's still standing there, ensconced in a sea of green... Foliage season is coming and this sounds like a great excuse for a hike :) I might have to go for the trifecta and find out what the status of the Moretown one is and if it is still around...(edit: I think i found this one too! Unable to determine from the satellite if it's still standing or just the pad, guess I'll just have to go investigate ; ) Thanks for cluing me into to some cool local history from all the way across the pond!

[@oswurth8774]

Production keeps improving! And all the content is still totally watchable

[@johnwhitley2898]

Excellent video and in depth search that you did! I'm glad your wife enjoyed it as much as you did! All Our early aviation history is deep, certainly here in the US...I appreciate your fresh look at this, and finding this couples website on the arrows! Keep it coming!! Thanks again for your hard work!!!

[@charlie2250]

Thanks! I've been interested in these for quite some time, and ran into obsticals as well . like private lands, and Indian land, etc. Finally got to see one just west of Albuquerque earlier this year!

[@nicholaszonenberg8023]

I really love the length and depth you go into in your videos :) It's a lot more interesting to me than more short form videos. And quite a fantastic subject to cover indeed :D

[@allo-other]

Calum, you belong in the Guinness World Records at the top of the Most Romantic Honeymoon category.

[@boyo2012]

Fantastic video! Wholeheartedly happy to support Calum on his rise on the social media and YT algorithms! Idk if I can't find the right stuff from Holzkern; but their rings are all stainless steel and those are an issue for me; react with my skin. Silver, Titanium, Gold, Platinum, Tungsten...all good...but SS...no go...hopefully they update their materials; I'd love to buy a ring!

[@theguy9208]

Weird, idk what kind of person would import a fancy ring made of stainless steel. Any local fair will be full of shit rings like that. Im pretty sure steel rings do that to everyone lol

[@The_ZeroLine]

Amazing video. Living in America, I love finding and driving on remote and essentially abandoned highways in the high country.

[@ericlawrenson7866]

One of your best yet Calum, thank you for the effort and for sharing. I love the channel.

[@samuelschuur7044]

It's funny I just came here 2 days ago to see if you had made anything new - and now a day later you publish! Fantastic!

[@SAM-zt2uy]

I just watched the Beetle video then was making some food and this one just auto played so was great to re watch it again, When you were mentioning something to plan a road trip around it reminded me of something closer to home The ROC post. I used to find routes to go and look at them or if I was off holidaying and the like would always try and look for some along the way.

[@alanlansdell7533]

Another great doc. Thanks young man.

[@CalumRaasay]

Thanks for watching Alan!

[@waynez1025]

66 year old American man here, I also had no idea they existed. Great video and thank you!

[@sebastianucero7535]

Amazing! Thank you Calum. Great Video

[@OldmanGamerYT]

Great video! I really enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing!

[@bobjoebobguy]

I live in Milan. It's pretty cool to see some history astound here that hasn't been abandoned.

[@oceanman3804]

Great video as always Calum!

[@joeschenk8400]

i have never heard of this route and its markers before! Thanks for your work and the post.

[@279seb]

Absolutely fascinating documentary. Thanks for continuing and expanding aviation history.

[@CalumRaasay]

Thank you! Much appreciated!

[@Greg-lq3yn]

Awesome research and presentation! Well done, sir.

[@Maxislithium]

Stunning work.

[@ethanstewart9970]

Another incredibly well researched video, thanks mate.

[@BLNChrisCross]

Always a charm to watch

[@mouthend]

Fabulous work as always Calum. I am amazed at how you manage to bring the past to life by looking into the history of things that most of us would not think twice about. I recommend the one you did on jerry cans in particular to anyone who enjoyed this one as much as I did. Your work will be appreciated by future historians I am sure.

[@Luceq]

Amazing work! Thankyou!

[@bombthefueher]

Man, I honestly hope you keep doing documentaries forever. You have a passion for it.

[@kmpm]

Love the quality of your documentaries..

[@GeshronTyler1]

My father was a glider pilot, and for much of my childhood, numerous weekends during summer were spent at the airport in Ephrata, WA. It used to have a beacon light, that always drew my fascination. I hadn't known about the airway markers and beacons, or at least registered their existence until relatively recently. Looking up the recorded sites of where such beacons had bee, I found that there indeed did seem to have been an airway beacon at that site. I don't know if it had had an airport associated from the very beginning, because the first mention of an airport is as a training base for B-17s in WWII. I don't recall any concrete arrows, either, I suppose it's possible some things were moved, or dismantled when the airport was established...

[@greenbimoon]

Fascinating. Thanks so much, super interesting topic as always

[@eepynicky]

its a good day when a new calum video drops

[@revee1000]

Very well done video!

[@markusjuenemann]

I just love your videos! every single time I learn something new...

[@sbedford9833]

Thank you for the great video!! Very timely for me as I just finished reading "The Great Air Race" by John Lancaster. All these markers and systems were put in place after the events in the book so that pilots could navigate across the country.

[@Commander-McBragg]

Best report on this ever. Keep up the great work

[@ros-t]

Class videos mate! Well in 💪🏼.

[@jyrkikokkola8547]

You keep bringing up the most fascinating stuff!

[@josuelservin]

What a fascinating little pieces of history, thanks for the this video it was delightful.

[@CalumRaasay]

Thank you Josuel!

[@pbfloyd13]

As someone fascinated with this pioneer era of aircraft I had no idea of this network, very informative documentary Calum✌🏾

[@The_Original_Trippy]

I love this channel, every video is unique and a deep story it just resonates with what i love

[@RangeGleasry]

This is so cool! Thank you for this insanely nerdy video on the history of civil aviation!

[@BilTheGalacticHero]

Great video. I've been to a few of these sites. They're fascinating. Also, for future reference, you don't have to worry about snakes in that kind of weather.

[@lightdot459]

You make the kinds of videos I wish I could, thank you for this!

[@aminrodriguez4707]

Man, you just threw me back into "Vol de Núit" the novel by french pilot Antoine de Saint Exupery, where he tells of his experiences pioneering the airways all across South America in the late 20's and 30's. Awesome.

[@patrik5123]

It's always a good day when Calum posts a new video

[@McImTheBear]

I was not expecting the car jacuzzi took me completely off guard

[@starfilmsanimation]

Thanks to watching this video made me stop at the Western New Mexico Aviation Heritage Museum! It was a really cool stop on our road trip

[@zimtt1276]

You make my heart grin. Thank you.

[@paulsmith9341]

I lived in Southern Nevada for about 3 decades. I would go out of my way to to just drive into the desert. There is so much cool stuff that will be there for a long time.

[@CalumRaasay]

Yeah that level of dry weather is ideal from preservation. So much cool stuff sitting out there!

[@paulsmith9341]

@@CalumRaasay there are 2 stone beehive kilns on the west side of the Spring Mountain range that was used to make charcoal for smelting metals in Death Valley in the 1800s. One was more or less a pile of rocks but the other was in good condition. It's been more than a decade so they might be both piles by now. The craftsmanship was incredible that they could build 40 foot diameter 40 foot tall stone cone shaped structures with no mortar! Close to them was a concrete tank that held spring water built originally for range cattle but now the wildlife uses it as their water source. I would drive up there, park my 4x4 and sit, enjoying all the visitors coming for a drink.

[@SchuckTales]

Thank you for the informative fantastic video. These arrows are something I’ve been aware of for years, however, I’ve always assumed they were in the western part of the United States, and nowhere near where I currently live. After visiting a few of the websites you mentioned, I found that there was an arrow about 3 miles from my home, and another less than 4 miles away. I’m heading there now to see what I can find.

[@nopenotme6369]

Calum, how did you know I was researching this topic last week! Thank you.

[@alancranford3398]

Thanks for the presentation. I dropped by that mini-museum in Albuquerque between the municipal airport and I-40. Now you have an idea of how vast America is, especially out West.

[@vancegodin4149]

man, this is well done bravo!

[@BluePhoenix8406]

Wow It's always nice to find something new that I don't even think is covered in U.S. History classes.

[@PedalBox]

Just completed a trip along Route 66 from LA to Oklahoma City, drove right by this and wondered what it was. Should've watched the video a month ago before I went and stopped on the way. Damn!

[@bernardkealey6449]

“I’m not going to sell this as merch” - heck man, you should. it’s reaaal niiiice…. Great vid, as always!