This small painting features a Varney Air Lines Laird Swallow Mailplane circa 1929 as it continues northward on Contract Air Mail (C.A.M) Route 5. With a load of mail from Salt Lake City, pilot Franklin Rose catches sight of Beacon Station 23 through low clouds. These numbered stations were laid out as waypoints along the mail routes to help guide the pilots at night and in poor weather with powerful beacons and concrete directional arrows. The remains of some of these early navigation aids can still be found across the U.S.