Elephant Mountain Plane Wreck Article

[RollingRock]

Fifty years after the crash, much of the debris remains on Elephant Mountain. Torn pieces of riveted metal. Wing chunks with hydraulic tubes dangling. Parts of the fuselage. Bundles of wire. Wheels and strut assemblies. The 40-foot-tall vertical stabilizer remains where it landed, 1½ miles from the other wreckage. Yahoo.com Article...

I never heard of a plane crash on Elephant Mountain before. Is this a bushwhack to get to the debris? The story is a good memorial to what happened on that fateful day.

 

[summitseeker]

This is a great piece of history. I saw this on NH Chronicle many years ago but had forgotten the tale.

Thank you for refreshing all of our memories.

Z

 

[Ed'n Lauky]

I quickly Googled the incident. I found that there is a road that goes within a mile of the site and there is a maintained trail from the road to the site. One website gave these coordinates: Lat: 45.5307340 Lon: -69.4249680

 

[Lost Dad]

The site is a popular destination for snowmobilers. There is a surprising amount of large debris on the mountainside. Unfortunately, a lot of the smaller debris has been removed over the years.

 

[JCarter]

Went there about a year and a half ago. Obvious trail, and there is a kiosk/memorial at the trailhead, and another one up by the main collection of debris. There is also a trail that goes past the debris field to the mountain summit.

Removing any debris from the site is both illegal and a desecration of the memorial site. But I'm sure it happens, but I hope the signage keeps the incidence down. Fortunately, it is pretty far from any population centers.

 

[BobC]

I went there about 10 years ago with a friend, and we took our kids, who were pretty young at the time. It's not a tough hike at all, in fact it can barely be called a hike, just an easy walk through the woods. We didn't go to the summit, just walked around looking at debris. As Lost Dad mentioned, there is a lot of it on the mountainside, and it's scattered over a large area. It was pretty sobering to see it all and the think of what that crew went through.

In case you haven't clicked through and read the article, the 50th anniversary of the crash is January 24, 2013.

 

[Stan]

I've been there a few times. It is easily accessible. The site is preserved by the local snowmobile club as indicated in the article ... who I believe also help enforce its integrity. It is perhaps the most moving of a handful of crash sites I've visited ... perhaps because there is so much intact that it is easy to relate to being on the flight ... perhaps because I enjoy Maine's North Woods so much that I ponder the big question of why I'm here and they're not.

 

[tomcat32]

It's practically wheel chair accessible at this point in summer. Plum Creek put in a parking lot not even 1/4 mile to the main debris site and there is a graded cinder path like one would find in a park to the main wreckage. Elepahant Mtn itself as a hike is not that exciting beyond visiting the memorial unless you bushwack the southside of it. Lots of other nice hike in Moosehead region. Not many too long but several short challenging hikes with views.

 

[tomcat32]

BTW off Lily Bay Rd, the main paved road from Greenville towards Kokadjo, the route is well signed to the crash parking lot.

 

[RoySwkr]

I never heard of a plane crash on Elephant Mountain before. Is this a bushwhack to get to the debris? The story is a good memorial to what happened on that fateful day.

This is not the Elephant Mtn on the NE100 list