REDWOOD PEAK MYSTERY LIGHT HALTED BY U.S. - Wed, Jul 18, 1917 - The San Francisco Examiner

Wed, Jul 18, 1917 – 1 · The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America) · Newspapers.com

REDWOOD PEAK MYSTERY LIGHT HALTED BY U.S. 

Big Searchlights Seized by Secret Service Men on Suspicion of Being Teuton Signals.

The federal government yesterday put an end to the mysterious signal system that has been operated for several weeks by unknown men on the summit of Redwood Peak, Alameda county.

Secret service men seized two big searchlights and instituted a search for those who had installed them, thus breaking up a system whereby code messages are believed to have been flashed to German spies many miles away.

The location of the two big searchlights gave them a commanding view of the bay and the cities surrounding it. The flashes, it is said, were plainly visible outside the heads and at points on the Sacramento river.

The flashes began to appear several weeks ago. Secret service men were placed on the trail, and exerted every effort to find the source of the code messages.

They succeeded yesterday. The two searchlights were fastened on tall poles, and the poles were lashed to tops of trees. No lights had been flashed for two nights, and it is believed that those engaged in the work received word that discovery was near at hand. Marks of automobile tires were seen In the vicinity. No clew was found to the men or to the persons to whom they have been signaling.

Redwood Peak is an eminence in the hills back of Oakland.


U. S. AGENTS SEEKING SPIKES Wed, Aug 1, 1917 – 8 · The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States of America) · Newspapers.com

U. S. AGENTS SEEKING SPIES 

Interned Germans at Angel Island Can No Longer Use Flags for Amusement. 

The trail unearthed a fortnight ago, when Department of Justice agents dismantled two arc-lights mounted on poles surmounting two tall trees on Redwood Peak in Alameda county, has led to additional disclosures of mysterious operations about the bay, believed to indicate the work of German spies. 

Reports from authorities at Tiburon and Belvedere that men were seen on Angel Island wig-wagging toward the Alameda county shore, have been investigated by the Federal agents, it was learned yesterday, with the result that the island commandant has revoked privileges to certain of the Interned Germans who were using signal flags for amusement purposes. Co-incidentally it became known that Federal agents have been watching on the Greenwich street hill for two automobllists who are said to have been making signals with an automobile mirror from a house in Greenwich street near Leavenworth street. 

The Federal and military authorities are reticent about the investigation and its results. The recent removal of Lieutenant von Brincken from Angel Island to Fort Miley is not connected, officially, with the mysterious signaling operations.