1964 Plane Crash in the Bob Marshall Wilderness

The plane crash was where the finger of water trough through the scree fields in rivulets in dead center of picture but down in the tree where those little pocket meadows reside.  The lookout sits atop the highest point above.

       

          One late August day in 1965, two people were flying in a small five passenger cessna plane above the Bob Marshall Wilderness and the plane went crashing down.  They were flying above the headwaters of Prairie Valley   The plane started having engine problems and sputtering around the limestone walls of the reef connecting the mountain Prairie Reef lookout sits on and Slategoat mountain.  As the plane sputtered and the engine murmured the fire lookout person took notice of the plane.   The plane whizzed lower and lower buzzing the treetops as it nosedived bisecting a wing and crashing.   The fire lookout manning the tower watched it all happen with eyes big as saucers.  The lookout got on the radio and called Great Falls dispatch and got a helicopter out to the scene as fast as possible.

           A half hour later the wilderness bird beats the wind into submission and flies between Sawtooth Mountain and Castle Reef splitting the Sawtooth Range above Gibson Reservoir where the north fork of the Sun River spills in.  Upon arrival the helicopter flies above the carnage laid to rest in green meadow fields of upper prairie valley.  Pieces of plane lay scattered in and amongst the wall of standing sub-alpine trees and some parts lay in springs and creeks.  The medical people arrived on the scene surprised to find two passengers alive.  One was slowing breathing and in far worse shape than the other.  They placed the victims on stretchers and rushed back to Great Falls on Mercy Flight.  The one person was not so lucky but one did survive.  If it wasn't for the vigilant fire lookout on watch for anything on top of that particular mountain the one person may not have survived and two would have been listed in the obituaries.  

          The drop-off from the lookout is over 1,500 vertical feet down.  I hiked down to inspect the plane carnage one mid-September day on one of my days off.  The hike led along the reef via animal trails threading its way through the rock scree and around blocks of limestone roughage.  It is one of the only paths down off the reef.  All the animals in the area knew about this passage.  Sheep, mountain goats, elk, black bear, grizzly bear, wolverine and lion all left their sign on that trail in the shape of tracks; hooves, paws, feet and scat.  The hike down was about three miles or so and took about an hour leading through sub-alpine fir, the occasional white-bark pine and alpine larch tree.  Lush green meadows fingered their way through the dark pines.  Elk for weeks on end in September bugled through the crystaline air bellowing their harmonious, yet eerie flute-like ivory-inspired calls gumming it between curled lips and open flowing round nostrils.  Giant bulls were seen and heard fencing with their large antler racks like swords whacking each other in the crisp autumn air. Each bull tried to show the other one who was stronger, had more finesse and the best genes to offer the heard.  With each win the bull said to the cows, "Come join my harem!"