Mystery Solved

I've been posting on the Monroe Evening News blogs and forum lately.

And I thought I'd try to get a little mystery solved at the same time.

So, I posted the following message:

"When I was in high school, I was a little bit bored. So, I bought a Monroe County plat book at the extension office on Raisinville and tried to figure out where I could go for legal walks in the county.

And that's when I came upon a little mystery.

In Exeter Township, there is a 70.7 acre piece of land that is, or at least was, owned by the federal government.

It is unusual for the U.S. to own property in Monroe, so I drove past the place a few times and tried to figure out what it was. It's in section 14 of Exeter near the corner of Martinsville and Scofield-Carleton Rd. At the time there was a little utilitarian structure at the center of a farmer's field.

So, my little mystery. What is on that land? And why does the federal government own it?

I came up with all sorts of fun little theories, most involving Monroe's history as a Nike missile base, but I never found an answer.

So, if you know, please post."

Well, inside of a day a fine poster named Nathan Harmon had my answer. He wrote that it was a VORTAC. This means that it a navigational aid for airplanes as they travel through the sky. Very interesting.

Here's a satellite map that Nathan was able to send to me.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Scofield-Carleton+Rd.,+Carleton,+MI&ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=42.046982,-83.458264&spn=0.006979,0.019333&t=h&om=1

He also sent a helpful tutorial on the subject.
http://url.rexroof.com/7456