12 SF-S Willows DOCILF Airway Beacon - Willows, CA
N 39° 31.443 W 122° 13.111
10S E 567168 N 4375225
An original airway beacon still stands near Willows-Glenn County Airport and along Biggs-Willow Rd.
Waymark Code: WMWZBZ
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 11/03/2017
Views: 6
I came across this airway beacon on a topography map while looking for a
survey mark which supposedly resides on the concrete base to the beacon. I wasn't able to recover the survey mark but took pictures of the beacon, assuming it was historic (it is). Another survey
datasheet to another survey disk (destroyed?) mentions a concrete arrow as well but the arrow head and tail look to have been removed with only the concrete square that the beacon stands on remaining. A website devoted to locating preserved airway beacons and concrete arrows (link below) states that this airway beacon was utilized for the CAM #8 Los Angeles,CA to Seattle,WA Air Mail route from 1929 through the 1930s.
This airway beacon was also used as a survey mark for many years until its rotating beacon light was replaced with a four-lamp beacon sometime prior to 1983.
The site of Willows-Glenn County Airport was once used as an auxiliary airfield for Chico Army Airfield during World War II but was decommissioned in 1945.