Memories were triggered when I read their drawing and commentary which appeared in the Enterprise on Tuesday, Oct. 19 depicting an event that happened 62 years ago. It included a drawing of a piece of the wreckage of the B-47 Bomber that crashed on Wright Peak.

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The rest of the story

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You know what? This accompanying photo shows me holding a piece of the actual wreckage. Following are excerpts from a story about being with the search team on Wright Peak on that January night so long ago.

Every now and then someone finds a trace of that wreckage. I believe that a piece of the landing gear is wedged in the split of that giant rock on top of the mountain. A lot of conjecture at the time imagined that had the plane cleared that single rock by just a few feet the plane may have made it back to Plattsburgh Air Force Base.

The elevation of Mount Marcy is 5,344 feet and Algonquin at 5,114 are the highest peaks in the Adirondacks. Wright Peak is 16th in elevation at 4,580 feet.

Following are excerpts from a story about the search:

“It’s tough to reconstruct what it was like on that dark and stormy night 43 years ago when this reporter, four forest rangers and a state trooper started up Wright’s Peak to see if there were any survivors of the crash of a B-17 jet bomber carrying a crew of four.

“The plane, from Plattsburgh Air Force base, had disappeared from radar after the pilot had radioed the base for permission to conduct a mock bombing run on Watertown. They were never heard from again.

“A massive air and ground search was conducted including a special search plane, a C54 transport from the U.S. Base at Goose Bay, Labrador carrying a team trained in such missions. As often happens in these instances, many incorrect sightings of flares and flashes of light and marks and tracks in the snow were being reported around the Watertown and Massena area and the first ground searches were concentrated there.

“On Sunday, six days after the last radio message from the pilot, and with more than 45 Air Force and private planes searching, the wreckage was spotted on the very top of Wright’s Peak. A search headquarters was quickly established in the Adirondack Loj manned by New York State Conservation Forest Rangers, New York State Police officers and Air Force personnel.

“Even though it was dark and snowing lightly, and the crew had been missing for so long, it was decided that Jim Lord, the forest ranger stationed in Lake Placid would lead a rescue crew that night to search for survivors. Jim Bickford, the Ranger from Saranac Lake, and John Hickey from Keene, another Ranger whose name I can’t remember, myself as a reporter and Leo Stoffel of the state police started up the mountain about 7 p.m.

“We took a break in a sheltered area where the trail splits, one way going to Wright’s Peak and the other way going to Algonquin. The weather didn’t seem too bad at that time.

“Just below the tree line there was a slight hollow with a group of evergreens and as we gathered there it was decided that Lord and Bickford would attempt to reach the top and they agreed to let me go with them. The wind and biting snow and icy surface above the tree line was incredible. We crawled on our bellies grabbing at scrub growth to keep from being blown off the mountain. Bickford’s fur hat blew off and caught on a twig sticking up out of the ice and he crawled over and retrieved it.

“After a short time and we had traveled only a short distance Ranger Lord called off the attempt realizing it was futile to continue.

“Trooper Stoffel, carrying a big metal radio, standard equipment at that time, could not contact the search headquarters at the bottom of the mountain … but a skip in transmission let him reach a state police patrol car in Canton way beyond the usual range.”

It was after midnight when we got back to the search headquarters. This is a short version of the original story.