Sweet Home

I always thought Sweet Home was in Alabama. Lynyrd Skynyrd and all that. The USGS database lists the name as a "populated place" in Alabama, but on satellite imagery, I don't see much evidence of populace there at all. I did, however, see evidence of population in Sweet Home, Texas, a town that until recently, I did not know existed. Terry & I drove through it intentionally; it's far enough off the beaten path that few people pass through it by accident. So...why would someone drive through Sweet Home, Texas on purpose?

As you can see from this image, Sweet Home is near the town of Yoakum, a town that Terry and I happened to spend the night in recently (and yes, it was "on purpose"...we didn't break down there or anything like that... Terry wanted to visit the Double D Ranch outlet store...another interesting story...but I digress). I was definitely on board with spending the night in Yoakum because, as a Texas railroad history buff, Yoakum has special appeal. It was named for Benjamin Franklin Yoakum, perhaps the greatest railroad magnate from Texas. The town was founded in 1887 as the San Antonio & Aransas Pass (SA&AP) Railway built two rail lines through the area (one of which, shown as a black line in the image above, is now a major rail line for Union Pacific). At age 28, Yoakum was a Vice President of the railroad when the town was named for him. In 1889, he became the General Manager of the railroad and in 1890, he became its "receiver" when the railroad went bankrupt! How's that for working both ends of the deal? He reorganized the railroad, brought it out of receivership, and negotiated its sale to Southern Pacific. Yoakum moved on to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway and eventually to the St. Louis San Francisco ("Frisco") Railway. When the Frisco merged with the Rock Island railroad in 1905, Yoakum became the Chairman of the Board of both railroads. He later moved to New York, migrated into other businesses, and remained there until his death in 1929.

But what does this have to do with Sweet Home? The other former SA&AP line through Yoakum went to Hallettsville and eventually went all the way to Houston. This line passed through Sweet Home a short distance northeast of Yoakum (or...to be more precise...the railroad passed five miles south of the community of Sweet Home, and the townspeople relocated their town to be on the railroad!) It was great while it lasted, but Sweet Home eventually lost its railroad when portions of the line were abandoned in 1959.

After the abandonment, about five miles of Farm Road 318 was built directly on top of the former SA&AP railroad right-of-way, beginning in Sweet Home and ending at Mont, where the SA&AP right-of-way can be seen diverging from Farm Road 318 in the upper right corner of the image. Driving on highways that are built atop former rail lines is interesting. The highway doesn't follow the terrain; cuts and fills are used to flatten out the grade because trains don't go up and down hills, not in the sense that a highway might. And there are no short radius curves, only those of the long radius, sweeping variety. This particular highway is not a great example; the road is fairly short and the local topography eliminates the need for any spectacular fills and cuts. But it is a highway built on top of a railroad right-of-way, and since we were in the area, that was enough for me to decide to go to Sweet Home, Texas. Where the skies are blue.

The Crossroads

Looks like an ordinary urban intersection.

US 61 @ US 49, Clarksdale, Mississippi [34 11 42N, 90 33 51W]

Oldtimers from the country would call it a "crossroads". But this is not a crossroads, not by a long shot. This is "THE Crossroads". You know the one. The one Eric Clapton told you about. The intersection of Delta blues and rock & roll. Bob Dylan's ultimate destination as he headed south from his birthplace in Duluth, Minnesota down Highway 61. The magnet for Robert Plant and Jimmy Page as they went walking into Clarksdale, Mississippi. The  intersection of US highways 61 and 49 where Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil for the ability to play blues music. His song "Cross Road Blues" never mentions that bargain, but I suppose that's not something you would advertise. When he recorded that song over Thanksgiving week in 1936, he was a long ways from Clarksdale -- at the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio! OK...it wasn't a Sheraton back then, but it was a very nice downtown hotel. They still remember.

There's a monument to blues guitar located at the crossroads. The people of Clarksdale want to make sure you know where you are. And every few years, Eric Clapton takes the time and effort to make sure you never forget.

Bron-Yr-Aur

Millions (?) of people will read the title of this post and instantly know the subject. A few others will read it and have no clue. Which group are you in?

Here's a satellite image of the subject:

Vicinity of Machynlleth, Wales [52 36 10N, 03 52 04W]

Actually, Bron-Yr-Aur is the cottage at upper left...here's a closer view:

So...it still exists, at least as recently as April 19, 2009 when these satellite images were captured. It had no running water and no electricity back in 1970 when it served as a quiet hideaway for a couple of guys exhausted from worldwide travel. Perhaps it still doesn't. And perhaps the lack of conveniences back then served as motivation to get out of the cottage and stomp around the countryside, which in turn LED to many other inspirations that could be found over the hills and far away from the cottage. I wonder whatever happened to Strider...

Charles Simmons

A few years ago there was talk of Congress funding a $400M bridge in Alaska between two lightly populated locations. It was derisively christened the "Bridge to Nowhere", to be located between Ketchikan and Gravina Island. Every time I heard a news story about that bridge, I was reminded of one of the first articles I co-wrote/edited when I was the editor of Clearance Card, the quarterly journal of the Southwest Railroad Historical Society. It was about a land promoter, Charles Simmons, founding a new town in South Texas called Simmons City (promoters are required to have a big ego). Transportation options were limited in those days, so he figured he'd better start a railroad as well. It was simply an efficient means of bringing potential buyers to the willing seller, you understand. Otherwise, he had no use for a railroad. I like people who don't forget that they also need to solve the ancillary problems that impact the success of their main endeavor. Depending on your gauge, Simmons was somewhat successful in his initial endeavor, but ultimately the town dried up and disappeared. The only lasting remnant is the church, built in 1908, that still stands...as shown in these images.

Church in Simmons City, Texas [28 24 21N, 98 16 45W]

So why does the "Bridge to Nowhere" remind me of this story? Well...there was a mystery associated with the construction of Simmons' railroad because old aviation maps (and modern satellite photos) showed his railroad extending well south of its "known" southern terminus in Christine, Texas. Texas Railroad Commission records said that it never went south of Christine, but maps and photos show that it continued much further south and then...it just ended. Frankly, it looked like a Railroad to Nowhere.

Misawa

I traveled to Misawa Air Base in northern Japan in late October, 1985. This was only two years after Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was shot down by the Soviets in the Sea of Japan, not far from Misawa. Times were tense in those days. I suppose they still are...but for different reasons. My biggest fear on this trip was not the Russians -- it was flying to Misawa from Tokyo's "domestic" airport. Think back to the mid-80's and consider for a moment the difference between a major international airport, say DFW, and its nearby "domestic" counterpart, say Love Field. Now...suppose you have landed at DFW but speak only Japanese. You can probably find some translation help to get you to your hotel. And if you've chosen a major, downtown "international" hotel, you can probably find someone there to assist you during your overnight stay. They can no doubt get you into a taxi the next morning and direct the driver to take you to Love Field. But once you exit that taxi at Love Field...the next person you encounter is likely to be a Southwest Airlines ticket agent who might be able to figure out that you want to fly to Midland and who can surely process your credit card to pay for the ticket. But her sign language attempting to explain to you how to get through Security and where the gates are and how the flight is 30 minutes late, etc. will look like so much arm-waving. You are on your own...surrounded by a massive crowd that does not speak your language. This is what I expected at Haneda Airport after arriving at Narita Airport and spending the night at the New Prince Takanawa Hotel [where the sauce on the spaghetti I ordered in their Italian restaurant was -- I swear -- Wolf Brand Chili]. Even the "pay for your ticket in person" was true because, like Southwest, the flight to Misawa was on Toa Domestic Airways, a Japanese airline that did not "inter-line" with the major international carriers and thus my travel agent could not buy the ticket in advance (at least not through American's Sabre system). In those pre-internet days, travel was a bit dicier...

The doorman at the hotel got me into a taxi headed for Haneda, and moments thereafter, I had a good omen. The taxi driver turned the volume back up on his radio and we were suddenly listening to the 1985 World Series on US Armed Forces Radio! [Best I recall, this was a Wednesday morning, so it was probably game 3 played in the US on Tuesday night, Oct. 22nd, which also happened to be my niece Regan's 2nd birthday -- sorry I missed it, Regan!] As it turned out, the ticket agent at Haneda spoke decent English and I made the flight without difficulty. My work on base took me onto the roof of a building where I had a great view of the AN/FLR-9 antenna. Nice to see that it's still there...

[AN/FLR-9 at Misawa AB, 40 43 23N, 141 19 44E]

Scientology

So...how do you view Scientology from space? Good question, but not really the intent of this post. Recently I happened to read the Wikipedia page about L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. Seems like Scientology has been in the news a bit more recently, and I was curious about whatever happened to him. I still remember all the TV commercials from my college and early adult years advertising his book Dianetics. Sounded interesting and benign...those advertising people are slick...but I digress. Anyway, the article states that the last two years of his life was spent living in a motorhome parked on a 160-acre ranch he owned (or perhaps..."controlled", since he was living in "deep hiding"). The ranch was near Creston, California and the article has an oblique aerial photo of it. Having never heard of Creston, I decided to find out where it's located and see if I could spot the ranch. And here it is...!

2011 view of the ranch [35 27 13N, 120 30 07W]

When looking at this image, I was curious as to what the double diamond construction in the oval might represent, but then I noticed the imagery date was 2011. Hubbard died in 1986, so the ranch may not have looked quite like this at the time. Google has historical imagery dating to 1994...and that imagery looks considerably different.

1994 view of the ranch [35 27 13N, 120 30 07W]

Clarity Tunnel

The geography of Texas has historically resulted in the need for very few railroad tunnels. The vast amount of land with relatively few natural obstacles meant that construction could usually go around a potential tunnel, even in central and west Texas where most of the hills are located. But this was not always true; by all accounts, there have been six railroad tunnels constructed in Texas, none of which are still in use for rail traffic. [And I'm talking "real" tunnels, not "urban" tunnels or subways (e.g. the DART tunnel in Dallas) where tracks have been placed below ground.] Two of the tunnels were along the Ft. Worth & Denver South Plains Railway, a branch line of the Ft. Worth & Denver Railway. The line was constructed from Estelline to Dimmitt, a distance of 131 miles, in 1927-28, primarily to serve the cotton business near Lubbock and Plainview. The longer of the two tunnels was Clarity Tunnel, a curved tunnel 742 feet in length named for F. E. Clarity, a member of the railroad's Board of Directors. I do not know the name of the other tunnel, but it was much smaller and located a short distance west of Clarity Tunnel. The story goes that a train derailed in the smaller tunnel, and in the process of cleaning up the mess, the railroad decided to eliminate the tunnel by "daylighting" it, i.e. excavating it so that the tunnel no longer existed. Clarity Tunnel remained in use until the rail line was abandoned in 1989. In the early 90's, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department converted the abandoned right-of-way into the Caprock Canyons Trail between Estelline and South Plains which includes the section encompassing Clarity Tunnel. It's a great bike ride (or on horseback, if you prefer).

Vicinity of Clarity Tunnel [34 14 22N, 101 07 30W]

Alternate Stonehenge

Since my wife is visiting England at the moment, it seems like an appropriate time to look at Stonehenge from space. Compared to the nearby parking lot, it doesn't seem as large as I expected.

Stonehenge [51 10 44N, 1 49 34W]

The original purpose of Stonehenge was always a mystery...until British and US scientists figured it out a few years ago. When they solved the riddle of Stonehenge, they were so shocked by the incredible power of their discovery that it immediately became a National Defence Secret, critical to military objectives of the Western World, to be revealed only to those with "need to know". The US wanted immediately to secure the Stonehenge site and ban the Public, fearing that when the secret eventually leaked out, anarchists would try to destroy the site. The British refused, concerned about making it such an obvious Security target. The US then decided it was best to build an Alternate Stonehenge at a secret location. Thus, if the real Stonehenge is destroyed, the Alternate Stonehenge can take its place and continue to serve Strategic Defense Objectives with its classified power. Although I cannot reveal its location, I can personally confirm that the Alternate Stonehenge exists, having visited the site in recent years. The stones were carefully replicated to match the layout of the original site, but of course, they are not as eroded as the original stones, and some of the fallen stones were righted (so as to improve the fidelity of the operation).

Alternate Stonehenge

I even managed to smuggle out a photo taken at ground level.

Figuring that such photos would eventually surface, the US Military built a fake Home Depot in the background as a means of confusing enemy imagery analysts. (They considered building a fake Starbucks or McDonalds, but were concerned that due to the small size of those buildings, they would not be clearly visible in a smuggled, ground level photo.) So...rest assured that the power of Stonehenge is being protected. And if you happen to know the location of Alternate Stonehenge, please contact me so I can pass your name to the Authorities.

Robert Smithson

Spiral Jetty [41 26 16N, 112 40 08W]

Nancy Holt, creator of the Sun Tunnels, was married to an earthworks artist, Robert Smithson. Not far from the location of the Sun Tunnels, Smithson created an earthwork called the Spiral Jetty in 1970 along the north shore of the Great Salt Lake. I've never made it out there, but it would be an amusing side trip if visiting the Golden Spike area again. Turns out that Smithson died at age 35 in a plane crash while surveying a site for an earthwork to be called Amarillo Ramp. His wife implemented his design for Amarillo Ramp at a small, private lake northwest of Amarillo, Texas. Like many bodies of water in the Texas panhandle, the lake disappears during times of drought. But Amarillo Ramp is still visible 39 years after it was built.

Amarillo Ramp [35 22 31N, 102 01 48W]

Sun Tunnels

Here's a satellite view of a random spot in the Utah desert.

Well...maybe not so random. There is something unusual in the middle of the photo. Here's a closer look...

Can't tell what it is? Here's a ground level view...

Still confused? It should be obvious by now. Clearly, this is four sections of enormous concrete pipe arrayed in an X-pattern...

It's the sort of thing you see every day when wandering around in the desert. That's Ron inside. I'm standing on a raised marker at the crossing of the X-pattern in the pic below.

These pipes are not light; it took some effort to get them out here and "properly aligned". So...why would someone do this? Ask Nancy Holt.

AN/FLR-9 at San Vito, Italy

In late March, 1986, I traveled with a co-worker to San Vito "Air Station" (i.e. staffed mostly by Air Force personnel, but no runways anywhere around). San Vito is near Brindisi, Italy; we were there to do a site survey pertaining to the installation of some equipment. What I remember most about this trip was that we arrived a day or two after the Navy sailed across the "line of death" into the Gulf of Sidra and mixed it up with Libyan strongman Col.Muammar Gaddafi. We were in Greece immediately before the visit to San Vito, so we flew from Athens to Rome (on Olympic Airways) en route to Brindisi. The Rome airport had been attacked by terrorists a mere three months earlier.  Within a day or two after we got back to the US, 4 Americans were killed when a bomb exploded on a TWA flight from Rome to Athens. For those of you who think terrorism (and aviation terrorism in particular) is a recent historical development...think again; this was 26 years ago. I did not get combat pay for this trip, but I did have some lousy pizza at Lecce, Italy (no tomato sauce), got caught in a semi-riot at a security checkpoint in Paris DeGaulle Airport, and flew Air France for the one and only time in my life (Paris to Houston). But these incidents are not visible from space; the San Vito FLR-9 antenna site is. The antenna was decommissioned when the US abandoned the base in 1993, no longer necessary with the end of the Cold War.

AN/FLR-9 antenna at San Vito Air Station, Italy [40 38 51N, 17 50 25E]

AN/FLR-9 at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska

Alaska was always on the front line of our Cold War defenses, for obvious proximity reasons. Much of the military activity was controlled from Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska (but not the capital). The base was built in 1940, becoming a forward outpost relatively close to Japan. I traveled to Elmendorf several times in the mid-80s, and on one occasion, I visited the facility adjacent to the AN/FLR-9 antenna. Recent satellite imagery suggests the building is still in use...perhaps the antenna as well.

AN/FLR-9 antenna at Elmendorf AFB, Alaksa [61 15 52N, 149 51 04W]

Studebaker

For those of you too young to know about such things...Studebaker was an automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. The company went defunct in the early 1960s. At the site of their automotive "proving grounds", they left some trees behind...

Studebaker Proving Grounds near South Bend, Indiana [41 40 07N, 86 29 27W]

Karamursel, Turkey AN/FLR-9

The US had a long and important military relationship with Turkey during the Cold War due to its proximity to the Soviet Union. Thus, it is not surprising that there are many relics of that relationship visible from space. One of them is the former FLR-9 antenna site at Karamursel, near Istanbul. Karamursel's location on the Bay of Izmit has resulted in it serving as a base for various navies at least since 1327. (I don't think the US was involved back then.) The US operated a base here for many years, but pulled out for good in 1979 (though the handwriting was on the wall in July, 1975 when the Turkish government demanded an immediate shutdown of the base in response to a US arms embargo). The FLR-9 is long gone, but the circular vegetation patterns continue to mark the location.

FLR-9 site at Karamursel, Turkey [40 42 35N, 29 31 39E]

Lake Kickapoo, TX Transmitter

In the mid-90s, while on a railroad history field trip to investigate the remnants of a rail line that once ran through Olney, Texas, I was surprised to see a small sign with an arrow referencing some cryptic sort of US Navy facility. Olney is well inland, so it wouldn't have anything to do with the floating Navy, and there were no airports in the area, certainly nothing the flying Navy would use. The implication was some sort of radar or other surveillance system. Sure enough, the Navy had built a transmitter site for the Navy Space Surveillance System near Lake Kickapoo. Interestingly, the transmitter is two miles long and actually crosses a farm road. Reportedly, the Navy transferred management of this system to the Air Force and presumably it remains in operation. Wikipedia claims this is the most powerful Continuous Wave transmitter in the world, generating 768 kW of continuous radiated power at 216.983 MHz. Guess I'll need to tune my UHF radio at the office to this frequency and see what's there.

US Navy Spasur Transmitter, Lake Kickapoo, Texas [33 33 09N, 98 45 47W]

Even more interesting, this farm road has been tracked with Google Street View, as shown below (looking north from the crossing)

Clark AB, Philippines

In October, 1985 I traveled to Clark Air Base, Philippines. What I remember most about that trip was being deathly ill with high fever when I began the trip at DFW Airport on an early evening flight to San Francisco, where I connected to a Philippine Airways overnight flight to Manila. By the time we refueled in Honolulu around 2:00 am, I didn't have the strength to even bother to get off the plane during the 90-minute stopover. Aspirin kept me lucid enough to clear passport and customs in Manila at dawn on a Sunday. Many of the streets in downtown were closed that morning for the Manila Marathon, or somesuch race. The driver dispatched by the Hyatt Regency to pick me up at the airport was available for hire, so I arranged for him to drive me to Clark AB on Monday morning. I spent the rest of Sunday in bed, suffering jet lag and high fever. We departed for Clark before dawn Monday to avoid the horrible city traffic (I still recall the "Stay in Your Lane" banners hanging from various overpasses -- and yes, they were in English, the official language for business, at least, it was in 1985). Best I recall, it was a 2 or 3 hours drive. I still had the fever when I checked into the Visiting Officer's Quarters at Clark, and I went promptly to bed, turning on the radio to listen to the Dallas Cowboys vs. New York Giants game on Armed Forces Radio, a Sunday night game (October 6th) in the US. I napped off and on during the game, but when I awoke for good, I knew I was delirious: The Giants, needing only to kneel down for a couple of snaps to run out the clock and preserve a 2 point victory, inexplicably ran a handoff play and fumbled, with the Cowboys recovering. Rafael Septien kicked a field goal to win the game for the Cowboys, 30-29. My fever broke at the same time. I was never a big Cowboys fan -- still not -- but it can be a good way to pass the time by radio, even in the Philippines.  But I digress...

Clark AB had hosted a FLR-9 antenna since April, 1965, and it was easily spotted as we drove around the base. I do not know if it was dismantled before the US pulled out of Clark rather suddenly in 1991. The Mt. Pinatubo volcano erupted in March and virtually wiped out the base. Rather than rebuild (and with the base lease having expired), the US abandoned the facility and it became dormant looting grounds for many years. Eventually, the Philippine government went in and redeveloped the facility. In doing so, they definitely won the prize for "Best Redevelopment of a FLR-9 Antenna Site". It's called Clark Expo, home of the Nayong Pilipino Historic and Cultural Amusement Park. The site also includes an exhibition center. The distinctive circular arrangement is unmistakable; even the outer ring antenna pole locations were reused.

FLR-9 Site at Clark AB, Philippines [15 12 18N, 120 31 39E]

Eldorado

PAVE PAWS radar near Eldorado, Texas [30 58 42N, 100 33 10W]

PAVE PAWS is a military radar network designed to detect ballistic missiles heading toward the US. Since this would include submarine-launched missiles, the network has to look in directions you might not immediately think of when pondering the likely launch areas for ICBMs. The Gulf of California and the Gulf of Mexico, for example. To satisfy that requirement, a PAVE PAWS radar site was built in southwest Texas near the town of Eldorado. The triangular shape of the radar allows for two arrays facing southwest and southeast.

As can be seen from the image, weeds growing in the parking lot and no vehicles in sight is a sure sign that this facility is no longer operational (reportedly shut down in the mid-90's).


But perhaps they should have restarted it a few years ago so they could spy on their neighbors to the south. Mexico? No...I'm referring to the Yearning For Zion (YFZ) Ranch less than four miles south-southeast of the radar. This is the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints compound that became famous in recent years because of the raid by law enforcement officers resulting in various prosecutions and court proceedings in nearby San Angelo for polygamy and related offenses. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLDS for details...

In the image at left, the PAVE PAWS radar site is visible at upper left and the YFZ Ranch compound is the maze of roads and buildings at the bottom. On a recent drive down US 277, it was easy to spot the radar, but I did not notice the YFZ compound. It may not be visible from the highway...at the time, I didn't actually know where to look.

Artesian Belt Railroad

Artesian Belt Railroad ROW near Somerset, Texas [29 12 41N, 98 38 24W]

The Artesian Belt Railroad is a long forgotten railroad that operated south of San Antonio, Texas a century ago. How it was started and its ultimate demise made a sufficiently interesting story that I co-wrote an article about it. The article was published in Clearance Card, the quarterly journal of the Southwest Railroad Historical Society. Getting it published was easy since I was the editor of Clearance Card. SRHS is no longer the historical society that it once, was having morphed into a vagabond railroad museum. My involvement ceased a decade ago. If Clearance Card is still published, it is likely a museum newsletter. Fortunately, the article we wrote is available on my co-author's website here http://codney.tnorr.com/simmons.htm.

Shemya Island

Cobra Dane [52 44 14N, 174 05 30E]

The Cobra Dane Radar is located on Shemya Island, Alaska. It's a phased-array radar approximately 95 ft. in diameter facing northwest toward the Russian missile ranges near Kamchatka. Shemya is both pretty and bleak. My first visit was in July, 1985. It was sunny and 57F when we landed -- I was promptly told that this was one of the half-dozen days of sunshine they would have each year (and I never saw the sun again for the remainder of the week, nor on a subsequent trip in December). It was also one of the warmest (with 63F claimed as the all-time high temperature on the island). I also saw a few bluebonnets and lots of blue foxes. Hard to believe bluebonnets would grow under those conditions, but they did. I had been told about the blue foxes by my grandfather, Julian Bullock, a Navy Seabee who had built the first runway on Shemya during WWII. Turns out that the foxes had become tame over the years from being around people (once the island became a military base during WWII). The first sight I saw as I went down the back stairs of the Reeve Aleutian Airways 727 Combo (freight and passengers) was a blue fox looking up the stairway. During the week, I got a tour of the Cobra Dane Radar facility. They had me sign their guestbook for "official visitors". The most recent visitor (from the prior week) had been William J. Casey.

original runway on Shemya Island...new one at lower right

CDAA at Bondville, IL

So...you're driving aimlessly around the countryside near Bondville, Illinois and you stumble upon these land-scars. They are the remnants of the original Wullenweber array built (or, more precisely, "reassembled" from a dismantled German antenna) by the University of Illinois for HF direction finding research after WWII. The term "Wullenweber" reportedly derives from the German code name for their Circular Disposed Antenna Array (CDAA) research during the war. Not sure what the square area was, but it has signs of having hosted antenna research of some kind.  [40 02 59N, 88 22 51W]

FLR-9 at Augsburg, Germany

I visited Augsburg in August, 1985. This Google Earth image shows that the FLR-9 appears to still be intact. Don't know if it's actually being used any more.  [48 27 05N, 10 51 46E]

FLR-9 at RAF Chicksands

Many circular antenna arrays have been built around the world, almost all of them for military purposes. I have visited a few of these sites. I believe the first one I ever saw (in 1982) was this one at RAF Chicksands, UK. Its military nomenclature was AN/FLR-9, but most people just called it a "Flair 9". It's been dismantled, but the land-scar will be there for a long time... [52 02 39N, 00 23 21W]   Below is a ground level photo I took in October, 1982

Getting Started

I'm intrigued by satellite imagery, particularly of locations with telltale signs of what is, or what used to be, something unusual. As I began to use satellite imagery in my website that documents Texas railroad towers, http://www.towers.txrrhistory.com/index.htm, I started looking for other things of interest. On this blog, I plan to post images from space that I find interesting.