We had achieved the summit of North Brother and it was not yet 10am. As we had hoped, we had time for a little more adventure this day. I had heard of a 1944 plane crash site on nearby Fort Mountain, and was interested in having a look for myself. A bit of research had revealed that a followable herd path existed between North Brother and Fort, and a fainter still herdpath led to the crash site - if you knew where to look for it.
Western end of ridge, Fort Mountain
Eastern end of Fort Mountain
Before setting out, we took a good, long look at nearby Fort Mountain, scanning the upper slopes for an indication of a crash site. I had heard that a portion of the wreckage was visible if you looked carefully enough. I took several high-zoom pictures and carefully reviewed them on my camera. One bright triangular spot looked promising, but I couldn't tell for sure if it was metal or just a strangely-shaped boulder. I guess it was time to go over and find out.
I could see a few cairns heading down the north side of North Brother's summit. These, I concluded, were likely part of the herd path leading to Fort, and so we started the traverse by following them. The decision proved to be the right one: the cairned route led down to the edge of the scrub, where a spotty but followable path continued.
courtesy JInnes
North slopes of North Brother
Herd path to Fort Mountain
Fort Mtn Herd Path Flagging
Although followable, the herd path wasn't all peaches and cream; although the tread of the path at ground level is in decent shape, there are sections where the vegetation above the path -- more precisely, about two feet above the path -- was very thick. This meant some sections had to be navigated by feel, since you couldn't actually see the path your feet were on. On other sections, the herd path was quite open and easy to follow. A few bits of flagging in a few key spots serve as an aid to the unwary.
It didn't take us all that long to cross the 2/3rds or so of a mile between North Brother and Fort; perhaps 25 to 30 minutes. The summit ridge of Fort Mountain just peeks above treeline on its western end, providing good views in all directions, including back to North Brother.
The next step was to start carefully looking for signs of the fainter path to the plane wreck. I knew that the crash was somewhere below the summit ridge, and on the side facing North Brother. We had arrived at the western end of Fort's summit ridge, so we started working our way east.
Old Radio Equipment
The first stop was at a small highpoint along the ridge, which was the true summit of Fort Mountain. Here, atop a boulder, was a weathered piece of rack-mount communication gear. It appeared to be of the same vintage of the crash, and meant that at some point someone had carried it up to the summit from the crash. We continued on, keeping an extra vigilant eye out for a some sort of side path leading down to the south.
There was a faint path of sorts leading east along the summit ridge, but as we moved further along, the open ridgetop became covered by low, thick scrub, and almost all semblance of a path disappeared. Still, there was no sign of anything leading off to the south. We continued on, mostly bushwhacking, up until a point about 2/3rds of the way along Fort Mountain's summit ridge. I spotted a bit of flagging tape off to the right, and, correspondingly, there seemed to be some indication of foot traffic on the ground in that direction.
This was the most promising... well, the only promising - sign we had seen thus far, and it was obvious we should follow that way. A few more strips of flagging appeared, leading downhill to the south towards what seemed like the spot where I had seen the bright triangle back on North Brother. The flagging continued, along with a now-more-established herdpath. It was looking more and more likely that we had found the proper route.
C54 Tail section
Sure enough, a few minutes later, we suddenly came upon the crash site. At ground level it is well hidden until you come right up to it.
Before I describe the site, let me write a bit about the crash itself, courtesy of various sites on the internet, including Wikipedia: In 1944, a Douglas C-54A "Skymaster" (the military version of the DC-4) crashed while performing a mail run between Europe and North America. The pilots were apparently blown off course by strong winds onto a course over the mountains around Katahdin, and that, coupled with a low flying altitude and zero visibility, resulted in the plane clipping the top of Fort Mountain. All people on board were killed (seven people in total), and the crash site was not reached for a full week.
Engine Control Quadrant
The site is quite extensive and contains many large pieces of wreckage. The largest and most recognizable piece is a big section of the empennage (tail section), complete with registration number 37277. This piece was indeed the bright triangular object I had seen from North Brother's summit.
Rear Empennage
In addition to the relatively intact tail section, there was a lot of other stuff lying about. Large sections of fuselage remained, although much of it was quite mangled. Many little bits and pieces of the plane had been pulled out and layed out on top of pieces of aluminum - some levers from the throttle quadrant, some rudder pedals, a bit of communications gear.
Off a bit in the forest was one of the plane's four Pratt and Whitney radial engines, looking -- all things considered -- to be in reasonably intact shape.
courtesy JInnes
After poking around for some time (there is quite a lot of stuff here, and I'm sure there is more in the surrounding forest that we didn't see), we decided to head back.
