“Point of Interest in AZ”
Scattered through the Arizona desert, in and south west of Casa Grande, is a mysterious collection of giant cement Maltese crosses. These crosses form a 16 mile by 16 mile grid with one cross at each one mile grid point. They are an artifact of the Cold War and were used to calibrate the then top secret Corona project spy satellite cameras. Project Corona was a series of spy satellites (144 in all) launched between 1959 and 1972 that used panoramic, and later stereoscopic panoramic, cameras to photograph the Soviet Union, Peoples Republic of China and other areas of intrest. When the satellite was finished taking pictures it would jettison the film canister, which would fall back to earth and be recovered midair by aircraft (not always successfully).
Wasn’t able to make it to the exact location because there were no actual roads to it but there was another target site on the corner of a street on the way there. Cool for a quick stop but not worth a detour.
As soon as you take W Arica road the first one is to your left corner. Another one is behind the shooting range.
@kevinriley2 We simply hiked the Casa Grande Mountain Park Ridge Trail all the way to the south end and it dropped us right at the location. It's a fairly easy hike. Definitely do it first thing in the morning or during the cooler winter months as it does get pretty hot with the sun baking down. It was kinda cool to see it up close.
I tried checking this place out. It took me on some random dirt road. And each spot it wanted me to turn at would have got my truck stuck. It also looked like it is now behind a shooting range. So I passed on trying to find it
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Corona Satellite Calibration Target
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- Sun - Sat: 12:00 am - 11:59 pm
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