1928: Standard Oil Beacon goes up on Mount Diablo

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jan 11, 2009 | by Nilda Rego

The Chevron Corporate Archive in Concord preserves the history of the company and the companies it acquired and those with which it merged. This week's story about the Mount Diablo Standard Oil Beacon was made possible by this amazing resource.

Part 2

The New York Stock Exchange was booming. President Calvin Coolidge's remarks had sent the market soaring. He said he wasn't the least bit worried by the unprecedented growth in loans that made it easier to buy stocks. It was going to be a good year. It was 1928.

Everyone seemed so optimistic.

"Among Ourselves," a monthly publication by and for the employees of the Standard Oil Co. of California, reflected that enthusiasm in March with stories about the "Remarkable Standard Oil Aviation Beacons" that were being installed in the state.

"Employees are no doubt familiar with the Company's plans to erect two great electric aviation beacons in California; one light will shortly be flashing from the nearly 4,000-foot top of Mount Diablo in northern California; the other will be placed in the Merced Hills, in Los Angeles County.

"The beacons are being installed by the Company at the suggestion of the US Department of Commerce, which is engaged in creating airways throughout the country."

The Army was the first government agency in charge of erecting rotating beacons. It started in 1921 with a line between Columbus and Dayton, Ohio, some 80 miles apart. The beacons were visible to pilots at 10-second intervals, which made it possible for pilots to fly the route at night.

The Post Office took over the job from the Army to facilitate airmail delivery and by 1923 had constructed beacons between Chicago and Cheyenne, Wyo.

Air Commerce Act

In 1926 Congress passed the Air Commerce Act, which authorized the secretary of commerce to designate air routes, develop air navigation systems, license pilots and aircraft, and investigate accidents.

The announcement of the Mount Diablo beacon hit Bay Area newspapers in February.

"From its steel tower 4,000 feet above sea level one of the world's most intensive aerial beacons will light the airways of the East Bay when a 10,000,000-candlepower light, being installed on the summit of Mount Diablo is placed in operation within a fortnight," announced the San Francisco Examiner on Feb. 20.

'Immense value'

The next day the San Francisco Chronicle reported, "W.G. Herron, vice-president in charge of traffic of Boeing Air Transport, Inc. (said) 'The beacon will be of great service to commercial aircraft and individual flyers. The Department of Commerce is now expediting the lighting of the airway from Salt Lake City to the bay region, the completion of which will provide lighting facilities from New York city to the Pacific Coast. When this is completed early next summer it will be possible to revise our schedules, sailing to and from the bay region at night thus saving an additional business day for mail, express and passengers between the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards. The Standard-Diablo beacon will be of immense value both in eastbound and westbound flying.'"

Maj. H.B. Clagett, air officer of the Ninth Corps Area, was also quoted:

"It is obvious even to this layman what an invaluable guide this beacon will prove to be. But for every man who is actually engaged in the business of flying there will be an appreciation that is distinctly personal."

Electricity needed

In order for the light to work at all, electricity had to be brought to the summit of Mount Diablo. On March 25 the Oakland Tribune reported that the power lines were almost completed.

J.P. Worthington of the Department of Commerce was the man who selected the Mount Diablo site.

He said that the moment aviators top the hump of the Sierra after leaving Reno for the coast, the beacon will be visible. It will also be visible in clear weather for 65 miles at sea through the Golden Gate.

On April 15, 1928, the two giant beacons, one in the Merced Hills near Los Angeles and the other atop Mount Diablo, were turned on.

Col. Charles Lindbergh did the honors by pressing a telegraph key in Denver, Colo.

The beacons shone until the attack on Pearl Harbor. They were then turned off in order not to aid the enemy. Now they are turned on once a year, Dec. 7, in honor of those who died during that first attack.

Nilda Rego's Days Gone By appears Sundays in A&E. Reach her at nildarego@comcast.net.