Turquoise
is a high junction point in the Mojave desert, about 13 miles NW of Baker, California.
It was one of the linchpins in the western part of the
AT&T Long Lines microwave network, and handled
broadcast and long distance traffic.
As you can
see from its antenna
array, Turquoise had paths to multiple locations. It connected to the
east-west circuit that roughly followed I-40, the
north-south circuit
that came Northern Nevada through Las Vegas, and a backup circuit that came
from
the Los Angeles area. Plus, it connected to local independent
telephone companies, and through a neighboring site, to the north-south
circuit that flew over Las Vegas to Salt Lake City.
Turquoise,
as seen from the Northwest. Note the multiple antenna horns of
differing types. The antennas on the top were to communicate with
airplanes such as Air Force 1.
The antenna farm that has grown up around Turquoise. The loader is creating
yet another pad for an antenna.
View from Turquoise, westward, looking over the Mojave desert.
View to the southeast. You can see the freeway from this point, down in the
valley.
Shows the road to Turquoise. Since Turquoise was always manned, it had
a paved road. The road is still pretty good, although it has a lot of bad spots.
A closeup of the antenna array from the Northwest.
These photographs copyright Daryl Gibson
Turquoise, circa 1969. Click on this picture for a larger photograph.
This picture
is taken from the AT&T book
"Long Lines, The Bell System Unit for Nationwide and Worldwide Communications"
See this page for other pictures from the book.
Note how
many fewer antennas
the older picture of this site has.
It also has an earlier type of "Ground Entry Point" antennas on top
of the site.
Link to Mark Foster's page on this site.
These
photographs copyright Daryl Gibson. Other sites involved in the
preservation of information concerning this network may use them with my permission,
as long as credit is given.
Click Here to find out how you can help keep this site alive!
To get to Turquoise: take the Halloran Springs exit from Interstate 15, and follow the road west. This location is now owned by American Tower.