What’s the story behind the big Parker “P”

[ONE-A-DAY]

Normally we go to havasu via the 40 but the other day we went out rice road through Parker. Noticed the big P up on the mountain that I had not seen in years.

What’s the story behind it? Is it painted rocks, wood? Who put it up there and who maintains it? Just curious, it’s the stuff I think about for four hours in a car.

 

[WhatExit?]

Google is your friend...

The most easily identifiable Peak is "Black Peak," at 1,594 feet (486 m) to the South East. It is known to locals as "P Mountain" due to the large white "P" painted on its west side by the nearby town of Parker.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckskin_Mountains_(Arizona)

 

[WhatExit?]

More: http://www.surgent.net/highpoints/az/range/black_parker.html

 

[HOOTER SLED-]

Based on the thread with the sexy boaters....P is for Phags.

 

[GRADS]

They just didn't finish it yet....

 

[was thatguy]

I see those at almost every rural town driving through Nevada and Colorado.
I always assumed they were navigation markers for small aircraft?

 

[Backlash]

Most of the small western towns I've lived in and passed through had the same thing. The first letter of the city name on a nearby hillside. They were typically rocks put into the shape and then painted over with cheap white paint.

 

[GRADS]

On a side note, I used to slide down these letters on cardboard as a kid.

 

[spectras only]

Penticton is 10 minutes North from my place. Passengers from aircraft can see the name of the city on the hillside that's parallel to the airstrip.

 

[Kachina26]

Normally we go to havasu via the 40 but the other day we went out rice road through Parker. Noticed the big P up on the mountain that I had not seen in years.

What’s the story behind it? Is it painted rocks, wood? Who put it up there and who maintains it? Just curious, it’s the stuff I think about for four hours in a car.

Unrelated, think I saw you buzzing around later in the day on Monday...

 

[HSR]

Normally we go to havasu via the 40 but the other day we went out rice road through Parker. Noticed the big P up on the mountain that I had not seen in years.

What’s the story behind it? Is it painted rocks, wood? Who put it up there and who maintains it? Just curious, it’s the stuff I think about for four hours in a car.

Parker high school senior class used to paint it every year. I don’t know if they still do. This was many moons ago.

 

[BajaT]

When I was younger my older brother's friend tells me as we are driving east on Rice Road that he painted the P on the side of the mountain for his girlfriend, Penelope.....

 

[Jed-O]

Redlands has an "R" on the front side of our mountain and is actually damn near in Running Springs. We have tried to hike to it several times but it is pretty much inaccessible due to heavy brush.

Edit: the R is there because of the University of Redlands. First formed in 1913. And maintained by alumni of the university. (they hike up to it... Yeah, fuck that noise...)

 

[musicFunsun]

I’ve lived in Redlands/Loma Linda for 8 years, never noticed it .

 

[Ziggy]

I see those at almost every rural town driving through Nevada and Colorado.
I always assumed they were navigation markers for small aircraft?

We have a P on a mountain in San Marcos.....no town with a P nearby, but it was used as a navigational tool to align landing airplanes at Palomar airport in Carlsbad. Learned this from an old pilot neighbor that used to take me up flying with him.
Palomar Jr College is located below the P also.

 

[CJ_Donahue]

This thread reminded me of this...

The apartment is right outside the Milwaukee Airport and can be seen during the approach of landing planes. History has it a resident Mark Gubin painted the sign in 1978 at his apartment near Mitchell International Airport to mess with travelers.

 

[2Driver]

The plan is to spell “PARKER”. CRIT is in charge of the project.

 

[BoatCop]

The plan is to spell “PARKER”. CRIT is in charge of the project.

Wrong. There isn't enough room on the face of the mountain to spell anything out, (despite what the photoshop image above shows) and the Tribes will not allow any further defacing of their Mountain.

The "P" is painted rocks, that were done many decades ago to designate the Town of Parker. It was an annual PHS senior project to re-paint the "P" at the end of the school year. Sometime in the '70s, when court rulings gave Indian Tribes greater control over their Reservation lands, they restricted access to Black Mountain, including painting the "P". This was due to their belief that the Mountain was sacred to their customs, and that they found artifacts and ancient remains on portions of the Mountain. The only access to ANY part of the Mountain now, is via the road up to the antennae/repeater site. And even then, the maintenance techs need permission from the Tribes whenever they need to go up. Many times over the years, students have tried to sneak up to repaint it, but have never succeeded. Indian students have discouraged their classmates from doing it, and have informed the Tribes, when the plans began to get to the point of fruition.

The only exception to this, was sometime in the 1980s, when the "P" was outlined and lighted up by flares to commemorate a school milestone, at one of the football homecoming game half-times. I was there for it, but damned if I can't remember exactly when or what the exact occasion was. 100 year anniversary or something. The people who placed and lit the flares were all Tribal members, and the area was "blessed" before and after by Tribal Elders.

 

[ONE-A-DAY]

Wrong. There isn't enough room on the face of the mountain to spell anything out, (despite what the photoshop image above shows) and the Tribes will not allow any further defacing of their Mountain.

The "P" is painted rocks, that were done many decades ago to designate the Town of Parker. It was an annual PHS senior project to re-paint the "P" at the end of the school year. Sometime in the '70s, when court rulings gave Indian Tribes greater control over their Reservation lands, they restricted access to Black Mountain, including painting the "P". This was due to their belief that the Mountain was sacred to their customs, and that they found artifacts and ancient remains on portions of the Mountain. The only access to ANY part of the Mountain now, is via the road up to the antennae/repeater site. And even then, the maintenance techs need permission from the Tribes whenever they need to go up. Many times over the years, students have tried to sneak up to repaint it, but have never succeeded. Indian students have discouraged their classmates from doing it, and have informed the Tribes, when the plans began to get to the point of fruition.

The only exception to this, was sometime in the 1980s, when the "P" was outlined and lighted up by flares to commemorate a school milestone, at one of the football homecoming game half-times. I was there for it, but damned if I can't remember exactly when or what the exact occasion was. 100 year anniversary or something. The people who placed and lit the flares were all Tribal members, and the area was "blessed" before and after by Tribal Elders.

Good stuff, thank you.

 

[BoatCop]

We have a P on a mountain in San Marcos.....no town with a P nearby, but it was used as a navigational tool to align landing airplanes at Palomar airport in Carlsbad. Learned this from an old pilot neighbor that used to take me up flying with him.
Palomar Jr College is located below the P also.

According to research, the "P" was placed on the hill for Palomar College.

Guy Rocha, Western historian and former Nevada State archivist, states the aircraft associations for the letters is a myth. The letters started being placed in the mid 1900s, long before air travel or air mail was envisioned. (First US airmail by plane was 1911). They were placed mainly to express school pride, or to end rivalries. The first recorded letter was an "L", placed on a hill on Maui in 1904 representing Lahainaluna High School.

 

[2Driver]

It was a joke. LOL didn't think that required a smiley.

 

[rvrrun]

It was a joke. LOL didn't think that required a smiley.

I got it.

 

[rivermobster]

It was a joke. LOL didn't think that required a smiley.

This is what happens when you move away from Parker. You are now shunned by the locals.

 

[wallnutz]

It was a joke. LOL didn't think that required a smiley.

I got it too

 

[MrsVP]

The plan is to spell “PARKER”. CRIT is in charge of the project.

Anyone who has ever had to have something approved by CRIT got this. Haha!

 

[Spectra18]

That stands for “POLISH SAUSAGES “

 

[rrrr]

Decades ago there was a big "U" for UNM painted on the rocks of a smaller foothill of the Sandia mountains near I-40 in Albuquerque.

One St Patrick's Day weekend while I was in high school, me and some friends bought some whitewash mix and green concrete dye, mixed up a 55 gallon barrel of the stuff, loaded it, a gas powered compressor, and half a dozen rechargable water/compressed air fire extinguishers in a pickup and drove out to the hill.

We started painting about 1 AM, and around 2:30 we saw a couple sets of car headlights heading across the desert towards us, so we quickly packed up and left.

The next morning our handiwork was visible. We hadn't finished painting the bottom of the U, but overall it was a good job of relatively harmless teenage vandalism. It was painted over a few weeks later.

 

[GOTTBoat]

Wrong. There isn't enough room on the face of the mountain to spell anything out, (despite what the photoshop image above shows) and the Tribes will not allow any further defacing of their Mountain.

The only access to ANY part of the Mountain now, is via the road up to the antennae/repeater site. And even then, the maintenance techs need permission from the Tribes whenever they need to go up. Many times over the years, students have tried to sneak up to repaint it, but have never succeeded. Indian students have discouraged their classmates from doing it, and have informed the Tribes, when the plans began to get to the point of fruition.


Wrong. Been going up there for the last 13 years for work and have never had contact prior to heading up with CRIT for permission.
I've never seen a CRIT vehicle up there either.
Calls go to BIA for ETR on extended power outages.

 

[86403]

Back in the 70s a bunch of Lake Havasu HS students got together to replicate Parker’s “P” with a “LH” or “H” on Crossman Peak (we always played Parker in HS sports). We couldn’t reach a consensus on “LH” vs “H” so after much discussion we decided to go boating/water skiing instead.

 

[Ziggy]

According to research, the "P" was placed on the hill for Palomar College.

Guy Rocha, Western historian and former Nevada State archivist, states the aircraft associations for the letters is a myth. The letters started being placed in the mid 1900s, long before air travel or air mail was envisioned. (First US airmail by plane was 1911). They were placed mainly to express school pride, or to end rivalries. The first recorded letter was an "L", placed on a hill on Maui in 1904 representing Lahainaluna High School.

Didn't know for certain but I kinda knew it was for the the college. Pilots used it and the former Carlsbad raceway to align towards the runway.

 

[Jed-O]

I’ve lived in Redlands/Loma Linda for 8 years, never noticed it .

Smog. my mom moved to Redlands in the late 60's and untill she went on a date with my Dad who lived on the mountain, she didn't even know a mountain existed.

 

[Tommy Gun Images]

We have a P mountain in Prescott. It is a Prescott High School project. I went to Bradshaw Mountain High and we always had a strong crosstown rivalry with Prescott. My senior year the night before the football game between us and Prescott a group who shall remain unnamed went up and changed the P to a B. It wasn't very popular with the town folk LOL.

In the wake of the Yarnell Fire an anonymous group added a 19 to the mountain. That was amazing and very well received.

 

[TCAL25]

We've got a "P" on one hill for Cal Poly and a big "M" on the other for Madonna Mountain

Helps us remember where we are, we're a little SLO...