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History
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Rock
Springs FSS opened in 1920 and operated continuously for 70 years.
Originally established by the Post Office Department as one of the first
beacon stations on the transcontinental air mail route, Rock Springs later
was commissioned by the Civil Aeronautics Authority as one of the first
five FSS's in the U.S. Air Mail Radio Stations, also called Beacon
Stations, along the Central Division of the Air Mail Service route from
Cheyenne to Salt Lake City were located at Cheyenne, Laramie, Medicine
Bow, Cherokee (about 20 miles west of Rawlins), Rock Springs, Bitter
Creek, and Knight (near Evanston). The beacon stations provided
current weather information and local field condition reports to air mail
pilots operating open cockpit aircraft which were challenged by the high
terrain and treacherous weather associated with the Rock Mountains.
Rock Springs was a terminal landing field
with non-glare electric boundary lights placed 150 feet apart around the
landing area. Eight thousand feet of cable was trenched in to
connect the lights. The station also maintained a 36-inch arc light
(searchlight) of 500,000,000 candle power to illuminate the landing
field. At 25 mile intervals, 500,000 candle power rotating airway
beacons were operated by attendants on duty every night to ensure safety
for the air mail pilots in case of emergency landings. The beacon at
Rock Springs was 1,000 ft. above the landing field on White Mountain.
The Air Mail Service used
excess aircraft and aircraft parts available after the war. Daring
pilots had to traverse the east-west terrain of southern Wyoming without
supplemental oxygen. Personnel at the beacon stations were on duty
to monitor the comings and going of aircraft landing at Rock Springs to
transfer mail from one "air ship" to another. Almost from
the beginning, air mail delivery was a success. On Sunday, October
12, 1924, 1,130 pounds of mail cleared east and west from the Rock Springs
field. Coast-to-coast air mail service took between 55 and 60 hours
while rail time on the transcontinental run was 90 hours if there were no
delays.
In 1921 the Rock Springs
airport was located near White Mountain. In November 1930 a new
$45,000.00 hangar was dedicated at the new out-of-town location. The
new hangar would accommodate two 18-passenger airplanes and had a
"modernly equipped" waiting room. The airport and beacon
station were busy immediately due to their location on the lowest
topographical east-west route through the Rocky Mountains. Early
aviators needed this lower terrain route due to their physical limitations
in an open cockpit aircraft.
In 1965 the current airport
terminal was built, the runway was lengthened to 10,000 feet, and the new
brick building that housed the FSS and Airway Facilities was
finished. Scheduled airline service was provided to meet air travel
demands during the oil boom. By the late 1970's air traffic services
had increased so much that Rock Springs FSS was upgraded to a Level II FSS
with the journeyman grade of GS-10. Rock Springs FSS had nine
Wyoming airports and one Utah airport in its flight plan area. This
large number of public-use airports and the four radio navigation aids
were good indicators of the complexity of the airway structure of
immediate concern to Rock Springs FSS. They had the responsibility
to monitor the navigation aids, advise maintenance crews of malfunctions,
and disseminate information on abnormal operations to pilots.
Rock Springs, Rawlins, and
Laramie have always been major stops for cross-country flights between the
west coast and Oshkosh, WI, as homebuilt and experimental aircraft make
the annual trip to the Experimental Aircraft Associations world-class
aviation event. Rock Springs is also a turning or stopping point in
the Jackpot Air Race from Lander, WY, to Reno, NV, which has been held
each April since 1969.
Special events and people are numerous
in Rock Springs FSS's history. During the early 1940's the military
put Spitfires on skis and made training flights between Rock Springs and
Fort Bridger, WY, because of the ample snow for ski landings. The
Spitfires were to be used in Norway during the war. June 1, 1930
Amelia Earhart Putman in her "horizontal-windmill flying machine
dropped almost vertically from the sky above Airport Rock
Springs". During an interview, she declared her autogiro was a
practical, scientific, and safe means of air transportation.
Military mustangs, civilian tri-motors, and foreign military jets have all
landed at Rock Springs for weather briefings or to wait-out adverse
weather.
For many flight service
specialists, Rock Springs was their first assignment. Some people
arrived as trainees, checked-out as specialists and remained for 33 years,
but most moved on the other facilities. Early Operational personnel
arriving at "the Rock" were required to send and receive
International Morse Code at a rate of 30 wpm, operate the teletypewriter
at 50 wpm, and read Baudot tape at 10 wpm. Some additional duties
involved climbing 130 foot tall radio towers to change burned out light
bulbs, maintaining radio transmitters and receivers, cleaning and oiling
teletype equipment, and in the early days, lighting smudge pots that lined
the runway. Over its 70-year history, from the first Field Manager,
Mr. C.V. Krebs, to the last Manger, Mr. Joe Kruljac, Rock Springs operated
24-hours a day. Rock Springs was the switching station between Salt
Lake City and Denver Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) in the
1930-1940's. ARTCC's did not have air-ground capabilities then so
clearances and flight plan changes were handled by communication stations
like Rock Springs. Air-ground
radio communications were added to the duties of the specialists long
after Rock Springs opened. When Rock Springs FSS closed five
specialists were providing hourly weather observations, airport
advisories, inflight radio communications, preflight pilot weather
briefings, and search-and-rescue assistance. Few specialist who
endured the -80 degree wind chill factor they experienced while outside
taking a weather observation for the FAA or one of its predecessors have
forgotten their time at Rock Springs FSS. Rock
Springs Flight Service closed on September 31, 1991. |
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