Well, we were close. It was a bomber and it was WW II, June 10th of 1943 to be exact. But it was a B-24E in the 7th Bomb Group from AAF Salinas, CA. Pilot A.J. Thornburg and four additional crew were lost. I called for the full accident report and Missing Air Crew Report and will have more details when that arrives. I am also going to scour the microfilm at the library of the Siskiyou Daily News and the Mt. Shasta Herald for that date and subsequent weeks.
For those of you interested in this kind of research the key was the state military museum in Sacramento (916-442-2883) whose director, Dan Seddy pointed me toward http://aviationarchaeology.com (no "www.") where we drilled down through the AAIR database by country, state, and finally, town. Facinating site.
For fun I'm also checking Cal Trans because they filled the area when they constructed Interstate 5 and may have recorded any wreckage they found. I'm also chasing down the forest fire possibility through Cal Fire in Yreka. Finally, I'll try to take a photo of the oil pressure guage that Jim Kottinger has and include it with my next installment when the full accident report arrives.
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