Navigating the night sky

People with ties to the Lixville, Mo., community gather at Fellows Feed Store to reminisce about their memories of the Lixville beacon. Those in attendance include Edward "Bud" Fellows, Lynn Conrad, Lonnie Bangert, Judy Bangert, James Statler, Tom Hotop, Glenda (Statler) Israel, James Israel, Becky Winschel and Lawrence Buchheit.
Missy Nieveen Phegley

The first time Edward “Bud” Fellows saw the flashing light, he “was no bigger than a jackrabbit.” He had come down from St. Louis to stay with family in the Lixville, Mo., area in Bollinger County for the summer, and he remembers seeing the light flashing in the windows at night.

Lynn Conrad lived approximately five miles from Lixville, and he recalls the light shining through the windows into his home.

Lonnie Bangert says his family lived near the cemetery, and the light went over the top of his home.

Others in the community remember lying on their porches in the heat of summer and watching the light come around, first a big light, and then a smaller light.

The Lixville beacon light sat at the junction of Highways K and KK in Bollinger County, and, while the facts about the beacon light in Lixville are a little fuzzy for local community members, it was built sometime between the tornado of 1925 and the start of World War II and taken down sometime in the 1950s, certainly a memorable part of the community. At a time when homes in the area did not have electricity yet, the light from the beacon is fixed in the collective memory of the community.

Beacon lights began popping up across the nation when the United States Post Office and Army Air Service pioneered airmail services near the end of World War I. Pilots initially followed “the iron compass” of railroad tracks, but as the demand for mail service increased and the expectation for fast mail delivery became the norm, the post office worked to connect routes called airways. However, nighttime navigation was a problem, and without the ability to fly at night, airmail was slower and more costly than mail delivery via railroads.

In 1923, the Army Air Service built a chain of small beacon lights between Dayton and Columbus, Ohio, and began successfully flying night runs. This led to the construction of more substantial beacon lights located every 10 to 15 miles along airmail airways. At its high point in 1946, there were 2,112 beacons operating along 124 airways in the U.S.

The Lixville beacon was part of an airway from St. Louis to the Bootheel, along with another in Scopus, Mo., across the road from Bridge’s Store in Bollinger County. The light was situated at the top of a 50-foot steel tower, and the beam of light circled around, similar to the way a lighthouse operates.

Lawrence Buchheit’s father lived in Longtown, Mo., another high point along the countryside, and he told Buchheit about seeing the flashing light from his home. Buchheit said his father shared memories of when he was younger and would sometimes walk with family and friends from St. Joseph Church in Apple Creek, Mo., to see the light in Lixville and then walk back, which Buchheit estimates was a 20-mile journey round-trip.

Some of the mythology surrounding the Lixville beacon includes how it operated. Stories have been shared that it was powered by a bicycle hooked up to a generator in the basement of the home near the beacon. The homeowner supposedly had a schedule of times planes were to come through and began pedaling the bike approximately 10 minutes before the plane was expected to get there and continued until a few minutes after it passed.

However, James Statler, whose family lived in the home near the beacon, says the light was powered by a large battery similar to a car battery.

The home is still there, and according to Statler, “There is a generator in the basement that has a pulley wheel on it. On the basement shelves, there are glass containers that maybe hold acid and plates. There were wires to the generator, so it could run for a couple hours.”

The beacon tower was already gone when Statler was born, but he recalls finding buckets with galvanized braces in his family’s barn and his father telling him it was from the light tower.

Other stories shared by Lixville locals include their experiences climbing up the tower as kids, but the story that has become somewhat of a local legend is the streaking competition. Apparently, one winter evening, folks gathered at the Fellows Store, which they did frequently, playing cards and enjoying each other’s company. There was a layer of snow on the ground that night, and someone threw out a challenge to run to the beacon and back naked. Lonnie Bangert claims his brother was the only one to make it all the way down and back.

During its heyday, the Lixville beacon was an important guide for airmail pilots, so, as the United States Postal Service quote says, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” And now, even though it is long gone, it continues to illuminate memories of days past and inspire others as community histories are passed down from generation to generation.