17 Strange Arrows Found Across America
From Nevada to across the USA you can see these strange concrete arrows from the airplain windown find out what they are!
Subscribe to Hectic Express
# 11 New Mexico Arrow and Beacon
Finding one of these concrete navigational arrows in tact, complete with the beacon at all is a rare experience while finding them in good condition is even rarer. This arrow and beacon landmark in New Mexico is incredibly lucky to still be standing.
# 10 Abandoned Lighthouse
Many of these constructions have not only fallen to the tides of time, but a lot of them were specifically taken apart during World War II to use as scrap metal in a time where resources were very limited. Most of the hunts which stored the generators that supplied power to the light towers have been torn down or become dilapidated, but this one in the middle of the desert has mostly survived its journey through the last 100 years.
# 9 Split Arrows in Walnut Creek, California
Some of the arrows wouldn’t just point to the nearest airstrip or towards the next arrow. Sometimes, they would be split into two tails and two heads like this navigation point that you can find near Walnut Creek, California. A split arrow would indicate a split in the route or a point where two paths would merge. Back in the day, these arrows were painted bright yellow, but since their heydey in the early 1930s, the yellow has faded and been replaced with graffiti.
# 8 Northern Nevada Arrow
Some arrows are bent at angles rather than straight lines. Like this concrete arrow in the middle of the Northern Nevada wasteland, which turns at a right angle. An arrow like this denotes a directional change in the air route for a plane. Seeing something like this really illustrates how rudimentary this system was. Imagine flying coach from New York to California where you have to hope your pilot can see the big arrows on the ground and get you to the right place at the right time. It feels almost cartoonish!
# 7 Lake Point, Utah Beacon
This navigational aid is found in Lake Point, Utah. It points towards Salt Lake City, the nearest airway and landmark from this point. Obviously, this one of the arrows that have fallen as time passes. The light tower that once stood here is now scrapped and long gone, leaving behind only a cracked concrete foundation being overtaken by plant growth.
# 6 Albuquerque New Mexico Arrow
This arrow west of Albuquerque is a lonely relic of a time before radio. It’s an isolated concrete landmark out in the middle of nowhere, which would look really mysterious if you weren’t aware of the history of these things. They almost remind me of the same impression you get from Stonehenge, a mysterious man-made monument seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
# 5 Concrete Arrow Near Anthony, Kansas
Some of the arrows have come to be surrounded by newer establishments as populations have grown and spread to new areas since their initial construction. This arrow near Anthony, Kansas has slowly turned into a landmark that points not towards the nearest airway, but a tree. Its usefulness has definitely expired, but if you really need to find this specific tree in the middle of Kansas, we have the landmark for you.
# 4 Crooked Arrow in Toole County, Utah
Some of these beacons found across the country don’t really follow that old phrase about being “as straight as an arrow”. Many of them are actually slightly crooked or curved, indicating a slight change in the route. Like most things, you can’t always drive in a straight beeline from point A to Point B.
# 3 Meacham, Oregon Arrow
This arrow in Meacham, Oregon is no longer in the middle of a random field in Meacham, Oregon. Now it’s in the middle of a random field in the middle of Meacham, Oregon near a random isolated house that is also in the midst of a field in Meacham, Oregon. Many of the places that were too desolate and unremarkable that needed the arrows in the first place have actually remained pretty undeveloped over the years.
# 2 Minneapolis Arrow
This arrow in Minneapolis has actually become really hard to see from the sky and is now mostly obscured by residential buildings and trees. However, it is still a very easily seen landmark from the ground. Now it doesn’t actually serve any real functional purpose as its was originally built. It is now a slightly glorified lawn decoration with an interesting origin story. Far removed from its glorious life as a waypoint for pilots.
# 1 Arrow Southeast of Indianapolis
However, most of these arrows despite being in more developed areas, are still visible from the sky. This one, just Southeast of Indianapolis, makes a really striking image in a geometric landscape, pointing towards a rigid concrete parking lot for nobody except onlookers seeing them through satellite imaging.