Bomber crash site in Northern Nevada

[Silvertip47]

Anyone have the coordinates?

Thanks.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Oregon field guide (OP had a show on it. I suspect you could google it and find the episode. It's in the area around Fields Station, Oregon and Denio, Nevada.

I found the program.

Here's the location.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Pretty interesting.
Frank

 

[LuckyDan]

If you can find an old BLM recreation map or USGS planimetric map it shows the area as "propeller meadows". I'm guessing this is the same crash. If not there is another crash there.

 

[takesiteasy]

I enjoyed reading that trip report of the Steens area you linked to. Looks like a great area to explore.

 

[ski3pin]

The text book - Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents

 

[Lighthawk]

Anyone have the coordinates?

Thanks.

Looks like you got the spot, Silvertip. I added it to my collection on interesting places on googlemap

Coincidentally, my tire guy went there recently, riding his dual sport. He's no spring chicken, and his buddy couldn't make it up the final hill and had to walk. I think they both crashed their bikes at one point. But, they made it! He told me they were packing extra gas in gatorade bottles. On the way home they did High Rock Cyn heading back to Cedar City.

I like my tire guy to do at least the trails I do and then some.
Good luck finding your plane.

 

[Silvertip47]

Thanks so much!!!

I started that way with a group from Happy Trails Adventure MC Club. Only 3 of them made it to the actual site. I was one who crashed too many times on the rough terrain.

This time I'm taking my quad!!!!

 

[KILR0Y]

You don't think your truck/camper would make it, at least to the vicinity, say within a couple of hundred yards?

 

[Lighthawk]

You don't think your truck/camper would make it, at least to the vicinity, say within a couple of hundred yards?

It sounded like the guy who couldn't ride his bike up the last hill had to walk, maybe 1/4 mile.

 

[Silvertip47]

Actually I am planning on taking my travel trailer and stay at the local campground, Forgot it's name, has a hot spring, and run around on my quad..

 

[Foy]

The text book - Fatal Army Air Forces Aviation Accidents

Those numbers are absolutely astounding! In 58 years on the planet, I'd heard of quite a number of WWII-era crashes, and back this way, including no fewer than 3 which crashed into reservoirs (Lake Murray, SC; Greenwood Reservoir, SC; and Badin Lake, NC, with the B-25 which crashed into Lake Murray having been raised in recent years). In my backpacking days way back in another lifetime, we packed into the Wind River Range, WY for a week and the trail started at the mouth of Bomber Basin, so named for a bomber crash in that canyon. But, Holey Moley, I'd have never guessed the number of aircraft and personnel lost to non-combat crashes. I'd be fascinated to have the volume, but the price is too steep outside of the context of a research rescource. Maybe a public library will have it. With all of the WWII era military airfields in NC, SC, and VA, surely lots of those incidents are local to me, in addition to the lake crashes. Amazon reviewer O'Conner reflects what I'd heard about each of the lake crashes as well as the Bomber Basin, WY crash: All 3 of the lake crashes involved pilots showing off to family & friends at the lake, and the crash in the Winds involved fliers buzzing a bear they'd spotted.
Thanks for that link, Ski!

Foy

 

[ski3pin]

Foy, it is pretty incredible to think about all the loss and sacrifice. Several years ago I took on a project to identify/research aircraft wreckage in a Sierra Wilderness area. Seems no one knew what they were or any of the details. I provided a report to the USFS archeologists. Many, many stories. That's when I learned research involves long tedious hours. Two websites by folks I know.

Air Craft Wrecks

Aviation Archaeology

 

[Foy]

Just what I need, Ski, more stuff to explore and spend time reading about. Thanks!

Here's the story of Bomber Basin, WY. http://planetjh.com/2013/05/28/get-out-land-olakes-and-bombers/

When I was packing up past Torrey Peak in the August 1976, headed for Gannet, Wyoming's HP (we didn't summit--bad weather and a profound sense of having bitten off more than we could chew), Bomber Basin and Bomber Lake already had their names. This piece refers to the accident having been known at time and that USFS personnel found the wreckage contemporaneously, but says, incorrectly, that only after a crewmember's dog tag was found in 1989 was the area renamed Bomber Basin. The story of the incident doesn't square with the "buzzing a bear" tale we heard at the time, in 1976, either. The locating and return to family of one of the crewmember's dog tag, found by hunters in 1989, is heartwarming.

Foy

 

[ski3pin]

Hester Lake

Foy, thanks for the story.

This is a very bittersweet story from the High Sierra. The co-pilots father searched for the crash site for years. It was found shortly after the father died. The lake now is named in their honor.

And back to the original post - there are many many crash sites in the remote areas of Nevada.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Thanks Ski.Interesting story.
Frank

 

[ETAV8R]

Neat stuff here. That is quite a trip report and on a Coleman appreciation site to boot. The book about the crashes is PRICEY!
A friend of mine was one, if not the, first to hike to the Gambler's Special. That is an interesting story as well, non-military though.