Who Needs This Sign?
This page is an original summary written for the Phoenix Air Marker website from an archived copy of the RoadTrip America article by Bob Schaller, originally published October 18, 2003. It is not a reprint of the original article.
This hillside “PHOENIX” marker is not a highway sign for motorists. RoadTrip America published a first-person account by Phoenix local Bob Schaller, who wrote that you can see it as you head up the hill from Mesa toward Usery Mountain Park.
Schaller recalled meeting Charles Merritt, a 1930s barnstormer and early sport parachutist who led an Air Explorers Boy Scout post. In the 1950s, Merritt was looking for a community project for the scouts. “Charlie decided that transient pilots needed a ‘navigational aid’ to help them find Phoenix,” Schaller wrote. The Sky-Hi Pioneers hauled rocks into place on a mountain east of the city, whitewashed the letters, and kept the marker up for years.
Schaller noted that modern radio and GPS navigation have made such a landmark far less necessary, but the sign still reminded him of Merritt. He also recorded one of Merritt’s quirks: the veteran pilot would not drive a car. “He said driving with all the crazies out there wasn’t safe.” Merritt lived in Phoenix, worked in Tucson, and flew his Cessna, “Old Betsy,” between the two.