Who turned out the Lights? #2 Course Marker #216 Traditional Cache
Who turned out the Lights? #2 Course Marker #216
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Size: 
(regular)
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Second in a series started by Nitro929, the cache is located near airway beacon 216. You will have to hike a little to find this cache, there are a couple ways to the site once you get close.
By 1921, the US Air Mail Service had firmly established itself as a daytime-only operation between New York and San Francisco. Named the Transcontinental, or 'T' route, mailplanes were flown to selected points along the railroad where the airplane would land in the evening and transfer the mail to a waiting train, which would move the postal cargo to a point farther down the line to be picked up in the morning by another aircraft This 'leapfrogging' of the mails across the continent drew the ire of Congressional appropriation committees and the scorn of rail officials, because it offered no advantages over rail transport.
To overcome the limitations of night-time operations, in mid-1923 the Post Office began to construct a series of lighted airway beacons between Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Chicago, Illinois. This particular section was chosen because of its relatively flat terrain and proximity to commercial power. Also, airplanes leaving New York could reach Chicago before nightfall, while departures from San Francisco could land in Cheyenne before dark.
Regular night service began on July 1, 1924, and by January 1929 the entire T route was lighted with the turning on of beacon number 25 at Miriam, Nevada. Westbound flights could now traverse the continent in 34 hours, while eastbound services took only 29 hours, besting the railroads by some two days. With the passage of the Air Commerce Act in 1926, lighting construction and maintenance continued under the Bureau of Commerce, Lighthouse Division, which rapidly expanded the system so that by 1933 there were 18,000mi (28,800km) of lighted airways.
Beacons were installed in every conceivable type of terrain and pushed contemporary technology to its limits. They crossed Georgia swamps, Allegheny mountain tops, and remote western deserts, and were even located along the walls of the Columbia River Gorge. At extremely remote sites without commercial power, beacons were powered by two gasoline generators, one used as a standby and supplied by two 515USg (1,9501) fuel tanks. At night, with the aid of an astronomical clock—or a photo-electric cell during inclement weather—a generator would start to crank. If it failed to come on line, the other would automatically crank and the process would repeat itself until one ran. Thermostats would automatically shut down the generator if it became too hot, or too cold in freezing temperatures, then start them at intervals throughout the day to keep the oil warm.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
va gur ebpxf gb gur fbhgu bs gur ornpba.