The F6F Hellcat Wreck

This is Jim Gubetta (left) and Jim Nile, the first a retired timber faller and Mr. Nile a retired timber cruiser. In 1954 Mr. Nile saw the fuselage of a crashed airplane just west of his north-south cruise line in Section 11 of the Trinity Mountains. Three years later Mr. Gubetta spotted shards of metal in the same area.

Saturday June 27th, fifty plus years later they found it again. Without the incredible memories of these two men our warbird recovery group would have spent years searching for the wreckage but they led us right to it.

Jim Gubetta and I had made two previous scouting trips and on the second one we found a significant piece that established the sites authenticity . . . this section of what may be an area near one of the landing gear bays. Having spent the better part of the day on the hillside before locating this we went home, planning to bring more guys and equipment now that we had it pinned down.


So on the third visit we had the men and the tools to really do some good . . . . Terry Weathers, Jim Gubetta, Jim Nile, Ted Pfeiffer, Jason Coats, and myself. Once we reached the spot where I had found the housing we fanned out and began finding things almost immediately. We spent perhaps two hours at the site and recovered several artifacts. Some, like this assembly that Jason Coats is holding even had legible part numbers and semi-recognizable locations on the airplane. Steven Star another team member with several hundred hours of experience restoring TBM Avendgers thinks for example that this part might be the tailwheel pivot.


Other parts such as the tappet and valve spring that I'm holding here clearly came from the engine (a Pratt & Whitney R2800 radial we think). Significantly, the parts were all found in a relatively small area that surrounded a small pit. It is on a gentle north-south slope and the parts were in a broad fan-shaped pattern to the side and downhill from the depression.

At first we thought the pit which is only about four feet deep and maybe 15 feet wide was an impact crater. There was a fire scar on a nearby tree too, leading us to suspect it had been scorched in the likely fire / explosion of the crash. But this first theory didn't last long. The pit was too regular, too circular. And it looked as if some dirt had been pulled out downslope by hand. Maybe a miner was trying to find out if the area was worth digging (there were several pits like this one and a rock-mining operation lower on the slope for chrome).

We have heard a rumor that the Navy had destroyed the craft with explosives after salvaging what they could and this scenario is our best guess at this point. (I have ordered the official recovery and will report when it arrives.) The downhill fan shape of the debris field does indeed look like the signature of an explosion although, as Jim Gubetta pointed out primer cord was used a lot in those days and he would have expected a much larger scattering of debris ___ perhaps a 1,000 foot radius or even more for smaller parts.

And speaking of small parts the smallest artifact was the most touching . . . a gold cufflink. Bent, rusting around the steel pin, and missing two of its three stones it is a very moving item that will be returned to the family if we can ever find them. The pilot, Lt. jg R. A. Hopen was probably in his early 20's and not likely to have been married much less a father so we'll be lucky if we can trace his parents or siblings.

Ferry pilots (this was November of '45, after the war and the airplanes in this flight were on their way to storage in Oaklahoma) were said to sometimes wear dress clothing under their flight suits if they had a girlfriend where they were headed. A romance that never had a chance to happen . . .



Some of us will be back at the site for more poking around and GPS work and we hope to get some more data. In the meantime all the artifacts are here at my house until we can find a place in the museum. Mr. Gubetta is working on that. If anybody would like to view them and the maps and photos just give me a call.

Finally, Danielle will be posting this article along with photos as they come in to our new website www.localhistoryprojects.com. I am also writing a longer article for the Siskiyou Daily News and the editor Mike Slizewski has even hinted we might get front page. Wouldn't THAT be something?