B-47 Crash Site Memorial Multi-cache

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Come and visit the informative historical memorial recently built approximately 10 miles south of Hurley near the crash site of two B-47 Air Force Jets. Be sure to spend enough time reading the plaques to learn more about the events that took place here than are provided in the longer description below.

A = After the first jet crashed, _5 volunteers conducted an all night search Friday and Saturday ...

B = Capt. Dale B. Rasmussen was 2_ years old.

C = When empty the B-47 Strato-Jet weights 7_,000 pounds.

D = The crash of the first jet occurred at about _0 P.M. on Feb. 24, 1961

At the time of this cache placement & listing, this new memorial was constructed to honor the victims of two B-47E Stratojets which crashed in the same general area near Island Lake, just 69 days apart in 1961. The memorial includes an impressive display of signs, flags, retaining walls, benches, as well as a recovered canopy and ejection seat from one of the doomed aircraft, There is also a model of the B-47E Stratojets that was made by local historians Greg Landretti and Bruce Jackson. Landretti & Jackson originally built a dedication plaque and model of the jets in 2004, however, their memorial deteriorated over the past ten years, and has now been replaced by this newly created memorial.

The B-47 jets were used by the U.S. Air Force 40th Bombardment Wing out of Forbes Air Force Base in Topeka, Kansas during the Cold War era to train pilots to run low flying bombing missions over the rugged terrain of the Gogebic Range, as the area bore resemblance to parts of Europe. Training missions were flown regularly from 1953 until 1964 and flights were scored and monitored from the top of Tank Hill in Ironwood, Michigan.

Tragically, two of the jets crashed in the dense wooded area known to locals as the Hogs Back, just 69 days apart from one another (February 24, 1961 & May 2, 1961), and claimed the lives of six airmen. According to Greg Landretti, the ejection seat belonged to navigator Johnny Hill whose parachute opened just two seconds before he hit the ground. Hill was one of two survivors of the second B-47 to crash, and he went on to earn the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in Vietnam.

The jets have a wing span of 116 feet with the plane itself being 107 feet in length. After the crash of the second jet, pieces no bigger than a kitchen table could be found. One of the plane's jet engines was located approximately 600 yards from the impact area which left a crater 12 to 15 feet deep and 30 feet in length.

Milton Erickson, an eighteen year old man from Gile, first spotted the crash after seeing a flash of light as he was driving south on Highway 51 near the Gile Flowage.

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This cache placed by a member of U.N.G.A.