On a couple of trips last month in NE Utah, I came across an airplane crash site I'd heard about, but never really knew where it was.
This description from another blog best describes it:
In January 1953, the Korean War had been blazing for two and a half years; a cease-fire would not be signed until the following July. Thousands of American soldiers had been fighting and freezing in Korea since 1950, and now some of them were coming home. In Seattle, returning soldiers were sorted into groups according to their final destinations, and with military efficiency they were marched aboard charter flights in alphabetical order. A C-46 transport plane designated as Trip 1-6-6A was headed to South Carolina; its 40 seats were assigned to men whose last names began with H, J, and K. A flight crew from San Antonio – a pilot, a first officer, and a young stewardess making her very first trip – were assigned to the flight, which left Seattle’s Boeing Field on January 6.
The C-46’s flight plan called for the plane to fly southeast across Idaho, over the Bear Lake Valley, then east over Rock Springs, Wyoming, to a refueling stop at Cheyenne. In an age before radar covered the vast reaches of the American West, pilots checked in by radio as they flew over landmarks, and the C-46 ’s pilot reported in regularly. Just before 4:00 a.m. on January 7, the pilot radioed that he was passing over Malad, Idaho; he would check in again over Rock Springs at 4:45 a.m.
But he didn’t.
As the hours passed with no word from the overdue plane, search planes were dispatched along the Utah-Idaho-Wyoming borders. The territory was rugged; the weather was brutal. A snowstorm from the northwest limited visibility, and flights were grounded on January 8. Ground crews struggled to investigate the flares a Paris, Idaho woman reported seeing in the mountains near her, with nothing located; a fire reported in the foothills above Kemmerer, Wyoming, turned out to be only a shepherd.
Finally, on January 12, Richard Burt, a search-and-rescue pilot based at Ogden, spotted something above Fish Haven, on the Idaho side of the Bear Lake Valley, that didn’t look quite natural. He flew lower, and spotted a wheel protruding from snow-covered wreckage. Burt flew to Hill AFB and picked up two paramedics. Returning to Fish Haven, the two paramedics parachuted to the site, then radioed to Burt that there were no survivors.
News of the search for the missing plane had been followed throughout the country, including, of course, in the southern hometowns of the missing men. Now the news of finding the wreckage was broadcast in grim detail: “Para-Medics Find Death on Hillside” blared one headline. A military inspector announced that “It was a miserable sight, seeing only small parts of the airplane and tiny segments of human bodies.” Hal Schindler, later to become author of Man of gobble, Son of Thunder, the biography of Orrin Porter Rockwell, but then a staff writer for the Salt Lake Tribune, hiked to the crash site, reported it as “grisly,” and wrote a chilling description of the loneliness of the site and the unbelievable destruction he had witnessed.
Here's the original granite memorial:
Crash debris that people find and place at the base of the memorial:
The more recent sign placed by the Boy Scouts:
A larger piece of debris hanging under the sign canopy:
Me and Maxx hiking up the canyon bottom:
Then back down the canyon, but up on the NE canyon side, Lots of flowers!
Nar this closest tree on the left, on a ridge above the memorial, there is a slightly flatter area where I found all kinds of old cans & tins rusting away, along with faint fire ash residue all around. I'm assuming this might have been one of the military guard posts location that was stationed here from January till june. They had to guard and protect the site until June when they were finally able to get in there and remove the remains and plane debris.
Little valley below the site
And a beautiful little creek
I wanted to hike much further up the mountain to where I believe the impact occurred, but the wife didn't want to (nor did the dog) and we had a couple hundred more miles to go.
I'll be heading up there again to do more exploring this summer. A really intriguing site and history. Did a lot of internet searching and found a few links below.
I'll say it wasn't creepy or ominous there, but EXTREMELY quiet! Not a bird or squirrel to be heard at all. My wife was uncomfortable, and the dog got that way later and both really wanted to leave.
Anyway, we proceeded up into Idaho and back down another loop, taking mostly dirt roads and back roads. Was a great day and covered a lot of country. Fun to set the garmin onto shortest route instead of quickest route and see what it comes up with.
Historical links on the crash.
http://magicvalley.com/news/local/a...cle_968e6935-b3be-566f-9a39-31124ad89434.html
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19530107-0
http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2009/03/laura-rees-merrill-replacing-fear-with-peace/
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...3xWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DuYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7266,5750934
http://www.backcountrypilot.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=4513