My exciting Veterans Day historical find
Since today is Veterans Day, and my dad was a veteran of the United States Air Force in the Korean War, I decided to see if I could find a place or event that was connected to the military but to which I had never been before. I succeeded.
I thought I would find it downtown on the waterfront since the USS Midway is there, the 32nd Street Naval Base is there, the North Island Naval Base is across the bay, and so many Veterans Day events take place there.
Before heading downtown — and I never made it — I went to find Chollas Lake Park. I’ve searched for it many times and have never found it. The address is listed as 6350 College Grove Way but there is no such address. College Grove Way goes up to 6303 and that’s it. Since I was in the neighborhood, I just decided to to a little exploring.
Although I eventually found Chollas Lake Park — I’ll have a post on that sometime in the future — I found a large military housing complex. Within every block of homes were children’s playgrounds. Here’s the most interesting playground I found:
According to that placard at the bottom center, that orange structure originally was 600 feet high on the top of a radio transmitter tower, Tower 33. There were three of these towers, and suspended in the middle of them was a 200 kilowatt Poulsen-arc transmitter. Poulsen-arc transmitters could broadcast at specific frequencies, which improved the range and reliability of communications.
Known as the Chollas Heights Naval Radio Transmitting Facility, the transmitter was completed in 1917 and was the largest and most powerful transmitter in North America. It broadcast at 30.6 kilocycles and had an unprecedented range of 12,000 miles. That’s about half way around the Earth. The Chollas Heights facility played a vital role in communications during the latter half of World War I.
During World War II, the Chollas Heights facility provided the only direct and reliable communication between Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the Navy’s headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The radio link broadcast the first report of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941:
Japanese attacking Pearl Harbor. This is not, repeat not, a drill.
The three towers were visible for 50 miles on a clear day, and the transmitter was in service until it was decommissioned in 1991. The transmitter and towers were dismantled in 1995 but the three concrete bases still remain in a fenced nature preserve. Here is one of the tower bases, taken outside the fence with a 300mm lens:
Of course, I had to dig around to see if I could find some historic pictures of the towers, and I did. The first picture shows the beginning of construction in 1915, and the second picture was taken in 1917 after construction was complete.
I could find no mention of these towers and this facility in any of my San Diego books. Puzzling…. and making this one of my most exciting finds in my 18½ years in San Diego.
Location:
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Posted on November 11, 2012, in Halls of History, History, Out & About, Photos and tagged chollas heights naval radio transmitting facility, chollas lake park, college grove way, military housing san diego, uss midway wan diego. Bookmark the permalink. 20 Comments.
What a cool find for Veteran’s day!
always great to find something new and interesting to photograph!!
Thank you – great post for this special day…
Interesting post, cheers
Very cool find!
I love this kind of history; a then-and-now story with a military flavour.
Cool old pix, I love seeing SD back in the day.
They look so fragile from far away.
So interesting!
Interesting post. Thanks.
Very nice post Russel. I really enjoyed it. The old picture of the cranes/dericks was interesting because there were no buildings around there for miles. What a change! Oh, by the way, you said your dad was in the Korean War. Did you know that it was the second Korean War? The first one was back at the turn of the century. It was mostly a naval war. Boy, we like war don’t we? Back then we were the scrawney kid on the playground and had to stand up for ourselves. Today it is “nation building.” We should have exited Afghanistan after we kicked the tar out of the Taliban (early 2000′s) and then left them to their own devices.
I did not know about the First Korean War. Interesting. I favor nation building but I like the way Obama and Hillary Clinton do it rather than the way the two Bushes did it with war.
There are some places where they don’t want to change. Afghanistan and the MIddle East come to mind. It’s documented in the thousands of years of history. We should leave them alone.
Agreed.
Moving and interesting! Thank you for sharing!!
Wonderful post on serendipity as well. You never know what you’re looking for until you find it.
Amazing when you think of the history associated with these structures.
Great post! Loved it : )
Awesome! Thank you for sharing
Interesting history Russel! And very amazing seeing that piece at the top of the tower. Recycling at its best!
Hahaha, Is Zoey TCC playing lion