MERCED
August 24, 1928: "Purchase of the Merced airport, a ninety-one-acre field adjoining the city limits, was announced today by the Richfield oil company.
The field is the first to be purchased outright by the company, said John Gore, manager at Merced. The project will entail an expenditure of $100,000 for improvements, including a six-plane hangar, machine shops and a mission style cabin unit for airplane and automobile tourists.
A steel tower 115 feet in height will be constructed to support a beacon marking the field which will form, according to the announcement, one of a chain of beacons extending along the Pacific coast from Mexico to Canada, to cost the company $10,000,000.
The Merced field eventually will be equipped with a hard-surfaced runway. Leveling work is now under way and engineers of the Richfield company will be here this week to direct building operations." (Santa Cruz Evening News)
The field is the first to be purchased outright by the company, said John Gore, manager at Merced. The project will entail an expenditure of $100,000 for improvements, including a six-plane hangar, machine shops and a mission style cabin unit for airplane and automobile tourists.
A steel tower 115 feet in height will be constructed to support a beacon marking the field which will form, according to the announcement, one of a chain of beacons extending along the Pacific coast from Mexico to Canada, to cost the company $10,000,000.
The Merced field eventually will be equipped with a hard-surfaced runway. Leveling work is now under way and engineers of the Richfield company will be here this week to direct building operations." (Santa Cruz Evening News)
November 9, 1928: "Construction of a $100,000 airplane hangar in Merced by the Richfield Gas Company will start here soon. It was announced Thursday. The first step in the establishment of the air port here will be completed next week, when the beacon on the field, 125 feet high and containing six tons of steel, is finished. The beacon will guide aircraft for fifty miles." (Modesto News-Herald)
November 23, 1928: "Erection of a huge beacon on a 125-foot structure is the first step toward permanently improving the Richfield Oil company's Merced airport, to be developed at a total cost of approximately $100,000. The new beacon, which will serve as a guide over a distance of fifty miles, is to be completed about November 15." (The Kingsburg Recorder)
December 16, 1928: "Following the official celebration at Palm City in the afternoon at which several squadrons of navy and commercial planes will fly in formation over the Beacon (Palm City). Admiral Ashby H. Robertson will throw the switch which simultaneously turns the light on the first group of finished beacons." (The Los Angeles Times)
December 19-20, 1928: "Elaborate improvements of the Richfield Oil Company's recently acquired airport just north of Merced's city limits were announced Wednesday by company officials.
A 125-foot beacon, topped by a six-foot red neon light, whose rays are said to pierce the most dense fog, was lighted for the first time Monday night.
It is one of six such beacons the Richfield Company is installing in California, three of which are in the San Joaquin Valley.
Pit gasoline pumps and a restroom are also to be placed at the port. A four-way take-off system of runways will be installed, and future plans call for the construction of hangars and a hotel at the base of each beacon.
The airport at Merced was formerly privately operated." (Modesto News-Herald)
June 20, 1930: "Merced Airport, Commercial rating, Owner, Richfield Oil Company, Merced, Calif." (Airway Bulletin, No. 1028)