HIDDEN

While recently, on a quick trip back to Arkansas from Tennessee. Betty and I didn’t have the stereo on, but instead chatted the trip away. Mostly we were talking about our recent Quartzsite stay. Here is one of those things we talked about enjoying so much.

Many of the dessert’s secret’s are hidden in plain sight. Here is one of those cool things.

Clearly, these precise, large rock letters are meant to be seen from the air. They gave much information to America’s early Aviators, who flew with little in the way of instrumentation.

The signs are giant representations of the symbols on the maps of the era. In the above photo, the direction of magnetic North is given.

The cool site is protected from vandals by a sign that is wired to a rusty barb wire fence.

Once we located the correct dirt track, we found the site in the second lava bed on the left.

In this photo, Betty stands inside the middle of the map symbol for town.  The word QUARTZSITE proceeds that symbol, then is followed by distance symbols and a directional arrow. A bit hard to see from the ground level, but likely very obvious from the air.

General Patton had his field Headquarters nearby and it is also in a fence. Clearly visible is the rock lined walkway to the HQ Tent and the division number markings made of rocks.