B-17 Wreck

During the second world war flight crews were being taught navigation and mountain flying along the front range between Wyoming and New Mexico.There are hundreds of wrecks scattered throughout the mountains from that period alone.
This B-17 crashed at 11000 ft in 1943 with half of the crew surviving.It's a 13 mile hike round trip and sits in a wilderness area in northern Colorado and a bit west of last summers high park fire.





I'd swear the fellow that left that huge pile was following me at one point.He had quite an odor and ,of course,I was unarmed.4 liters of water,some food and enough clothing to spend the night if it snowed.So I left the gun behind to lighten my pack...
It was an interesting day.

Very interesting and great pictures. I bet there are others like you say, just a matter of getting to them. Thanks.

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James

Tragic and interesting. Hat's off to all who lost their lives serving. I like the insignias left in tribute.
70 years later, the topsoil still not containing enough nutrients to support even a weed, along with the cracked and broken rocks illustrating how hot the fire was.

Great photos!I got on the trail of a couple of crash site in foreign countries in the '80s, found a P39 Aerocobra on Cape York in Australia(lost on flight in '42from New Guinea) and a PBY thats up on a ridge on Isla Cocos Costa Rica. Did you feel that funny feeling standing next to the sight?
Rest of the time I've tried to avoid being a crash site myself...

The stories of the men who were lost during training seem to have been forgotten.I've lived here all my life and knew a number of vets growing up,but knew nothing about all the crews that had crashed up here.It seems the stories of the 10th mountain division are well known,but the fliers aren't.

About an hour's drive and a pretty good hike up a mountain is the wreckage of a B-47 that crashed many years ago. Most of it is still on the mountain, unfortunately none of the screw survived. It isn't marked anymore on maps because people were taking parts home with them. It's there if you know where to find it.

"Did you feel that funny feeling standing next to the site?"
I sure did.Get that feeling at my uncles grave in Fort Logan too.He was an interesting guy.His mother gave him to an orphanage during the depression.He was drafted during the war.Trained with the 10th mountain.Hated snow,cold and skiing so he was sent to the south pacific.He was one of the kindest people I've known.Never talked about the war.Smoked like a chimney,drank like a fish and gambled away every nickle my aunt couldn't keep from him And with all that,he lived to the age of 83.

Very cool. There's a similar site up Mt. Humphries, I believe, near Flagstaff, AZ.

Back in 1969 I missed a flight to hawthorn nevada on a gambler special. I worked some ot that come up. Here is a article on it. I see a comment I wrote is about the third down. : (On December 28th, 2008 merril werch (not verified) says

I and a girl friend missed that flight! I had taken it new years eve on the connie they also flew and enjoyed it. I told the girl friend lets take the DC-3 next time. We were to go that night, but I took overtime that came up!
I carried a news paper clipping of it for years in my wallet to look at when things got rough.

Lone Pine, CA Plane Crashes On Mt. Whitney, Feb 1969 | GenDisasters ... Genealogy in Tragedy, Disasters, Fires, Floods
Another time in 1977 I was flying my piper tripacer out of searchlight nevada. I spotted a C-45 ona remote desert strip or road smashed up. I buzzed it and was fairly sure it was a drugger plane that had groundlooped landing. I was in CB contact with a couple friends I had left at searchlight. One of them was a pilot with the same sectional map I had and I told them I was going to land and check out the plane. I had buzzed the area well and was sure there was nobody for miles. As I was landing I seen what happened. There was a rain wash across the strip about a third way down and the pilot had to hop it and probley was to hot on runout. He purposely had to ground loop it when he ran out of strip. He knocked down a jousha tree just ahead of the rudder and the plane kind of looked like a broke wrist there. I had the same task as he did but was able to gun the engine and takeoff, hop the ditch land, chop and stop as I was a lot lighter and smaller plane.
The door was unlocked and I entered. The 8 day clock was still running. No back seats, a womans name and adress on the title. I knew it had to be a drug runner.
I got back in the air and told my buddys the deal. They had a 4WD and got to it late that night as I returned to lancaster california. Soon as I landed I went into FAA and reported the find. They had no record of it yet. The next day I went to a lawyer to see what I could do about claiming the plane. She pulled out a book on shipwreck laws and basicly, I had to do nothing but salvage it. Even if the cartel wanted to claim it back they would have to pay me storage fees.
I then through many phone calls to the FAA was put in touch with a vegas cop that also moonlighted for the FAA or whatever agency and he told me he had been following that crew for six months. He said they had killed and to watch myself. (Really told me to be armed)
The FAA offical gave me the go ahead to salvage.
Meanwhile my two buddys got to the plane in the wee hours. They were imbibed. One backed into a cactus in the dark stumbeling around and my other friend pulled cactus spines out of his butt. Even so they also got in the plane and fired up one engine horseing around. The investigator had told me that one engine had been giveing the crew trouble. The guys left the plane and was driveing out towards essex california. On the way they met a pickup with a couple hippie type and a woman. Since this was a dessert road or trail in the middle of nowhere they figured it probley was the crew. They let them get about 10 minuets ahead and followed. Sure nuff, they came up to them and they had the nose cone off and removeing probley drugs. My friends yelled to them to leave it alone as their buddy (me) had reported the wreck. There were threats and FU`s hollered back. My friends said they seen the guys were packing and left. Actualy, they had guns too but were in over their heads. They drove to a station around essex and called the sheriffs dept. I guess it took way over a hour or two for the sheriff to show. Then they drove home to lancaster.
One of my friends had a large old ford 4WD. He was a shade tree mechanic and hooked a block and tackle up. This all had hapened on christmas vaction for us. I decided we should make a run on new years eve as likely no one would be at the site. Now there was 4 of us and we all were armed. I had a AR back then. About midnight new years eve we got close and I walked in the last 3/4 mile by myself to see if there was anyone there. There wasnt. We did get some instruments and the pilot seats. The good stuff was already pirated.
We decided to go back a few days or week later for a engine with danneys truck and block & tackle he had rigged on top a horseshoe shaped boom he had rigged. Again I went in first ahead to see if anyone was there. This time I found the plane sitting on its belley, the gear gone and the engines gone! Oil was still dripping off cut lines.
A few years later at a FBO in california city I spotted the same model plane. I made a stupid comment, "I used to own one of them for a day". The FBO, dennis that I had done business with heard my story and said he got burned on that plane. Some people had hired him to truck it out, which he did, and their check was no good!
Bottom line was I did it all wrong. Were it to happen again I would have guarded the plane. Back then I knew good certified mechanics as I worked for lockheed aircraft. I also knew certified in type pilots that could have flown it out. It wouldnt have been that hard to fix it up.
No wonder I am a old broke retiree.
By the way, a few years after that mt. whitney crash I by chance met the pilots brother.

There is a British War Grave on the bottom of Sebago Lake. In it lay the remains of an Royal Navy pilot entombed in his F4U Corsair. The exact location is only known to a few and the big lake is over 300 feet deep.

Rest In Peace Young Warrior who died so far from home...

Merril I hope you are saving the stuff you write somewhere.You've got a great book of short stories in you.I'd buy a copy and read it!

Heck, if I ever were to, I would give you one. To tell the truth, I have started keeping them. At first I didnt and lost many my first couple years here, but I probley have told most of them again. The thought dawned on me several years ago as I have a daughter that I didnt get to see much of due to divorice. I havent got much else to leave her and I doubt she knows much about me as I was pushing 40 when she was born and I divorced her mom when she was seven, and I didnt marry her mom untill she was four. I guess she was mad at me.

Good,keep writing.Daughters seem to side with the mom in these things.I've been lucky with my kids,they get it.

There is a web site giving the locations of Colorado crashes. Its not just military aircraft, but also civilian. Some are so complete you drive past them and the only thing left are a few shards of aluminum.

The old radial engine bombers are really interesting because they were top secret, but the engines themselves were too heavy to haul out and resisted attmepts to dynamite them.

If you're going on vacation in one of these remote places, you need to reference the webs site and even print off the locations.

Part of the fun too,is that the old records are incomplete and the coordinates can be off by miles.

Anybody remember Dean martins son, "Dino" in this crash? Also frank sinatra lost his mother on a lear jet on the same mountain. I had a close friend that taught Dino to fly helicopters back in the late 1960s.
What REALLY happened to Dean Martin's son, Deano?

This wreck is about 12,000 feet on the northwest side of the mountain. All were killed, and they were ferrying the plane back East after the war. As told, the crew was in the back playing Poker, and the plane was on auto-pilot. It just wasn't their day as this mountain is the only thing that high this side of Colorado. We have several air wrecks on m Mt Humphrey including 3 P-40's from before WWII.

UNARMED ? ? ? ?

That's why I at Least take my M37 and another larger cal.

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Sorry about that but it popped out- Great Story....dan

Yep,he caught me off guard being up that high.

arjay, this is an intersting post. Near the Sunlight ski slope in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, is the remains of a B-17 that crashed on a training mission during WWII. The wreck is in the dense forest and had been reported by hunters for years. My father-in-law was a ball turret gunner on the B-17's during the war with 33 flights to his credit. He took it as a personal mission to find this aircraft. Though quite a few had stumbled onto the aircraft when hunting, they could only give vauge directions. Years of asking hunters, and studying ariel photos, we found the craft. Many had found it before us and not much but body parts were left.