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Ghosts of Pilot Rock MailTribune.com Writer Posted Jan. 6, 2002 at 2:00 AM Updated Feb 16, 2011 at 8:48 AM Posted Jan. 6, 2002 at 2:00 AM Updated Feb 16, 2011 at 8:48 AM » Social News On Jan. 6, 1942, a U.S. military aircraft traveling at about 180 mph 'flat smacked' the peak � killing those aboard and starting a story that lives on today Bob Erdman heard about the old plane crash from a fellow choker setter working in the woods near Hilt just south of the Oregon border in 1951. One weekend that spring found Erdman hiking up to Pilot Rock, the site of the crash. "It was curiosity that drew me up there - I've always been interested in airplanes," recalled the 1949 graduate of Yreka High School. — — — — Since the plane crash in 1942, 8 other craft have — gone down — The military plane that struck Pilot Rock 60 years ago — today is among eight aircraft that have crashed in the vicinity since 1942, killing 16 people in — all. — The Jan. 6, 1942, crash is believed to be the only one — to have struck the rock itself, according to Mail Tribune archives. — The most recent was the Sept. 5, 2001, crash of a — private plane about a mile northeast of Pilot Rock when the Siskiyou Summit was shrouded in — clouds. — That crash killed Dean Dino Beckett Jr. — and his wife, Kara Elain Jeffries-Beckett, both of Ashland, and Dean Ray Beckett Sr. of Macdoel, — Calif. The senior Beckett was a veteran pilot of the twin-engine Beech 58 Baron. — Other plane crashes in the area include: — April 14, 1957: Two men were killed when their — private plane crashed into Bear Mountain about a mile south of the Siskiyou Summit in fog and — light snow. James B. Andres, 33, of Prineville and Ronald Gene Wilson, 20, of Eugene died in the — wreck. — Dec. 25, 1962: An airplane carrying a Lake — Creek couple and their daughter crashed on a timbered ridge two miles south of Ashland Mine Road. — Reginald Dominick and Jane and Mary Jane Imperatrice died. Visibility was reported poor when the — plane took off from Ashland airport. — June 23, 1978: Ronald E LaRoche was killed when — his single-engine plane crashed near the windy, rain-shrouded Siskiyou Summit. LaRoche, 54, of — Farmersville, Calif., died in the wreckage of his craft. Passenger Mary Margaret Reynolds, 34, — also of Farmersville, escaped with second- and third-degree burns over about 25 percent of her — body. — Aug. 24, 1981: Two Salem firefighters escaped — serious injury when they fled their wrecked plane moments before it burst into flames. The Cessna — carrying David O. McDowell, 33, and Scott A. Smith, 28, hit rugged terrain four miles east of — Ashland. — Feb. 5, 1985: Four Rogue Valley residents died — when their Cessna crashed into snow-covered mountains west of Ashland. The plane, piloted by J.R. — Goerke of Eagle Point, had just taken off from the Medford airport bound for Redding, Calif., when — he radioed that he was returning because of severe icing on the plane's wings. Jason Scott, 18, of — Eagle Point, Ronald Rue, 46, of Medford and Chuck Creech, 40, of Jacksonville were listed as — passengers. — July 18, 1987: A 24-year-old Washington man — with a broken back crawled a half-mile to Interstate 5 for help from the wreckage of his small — plane. Brian LeRoy Good's single-engine Piper Cherokee crashed into a wooded hill west of the — Mount Ashland exit on Interstate 5. — — "The outer wing panels were still there along with engine parts, a part of the cabin and some twisted cable," he added. "And down in the rock slide right below Pilot Rock, I recovered part of a harmonica. That's also where I found skull fragments." Not wanting to leave the bleached bones lying among the debris scattered on the remote ridge, Erdman gently gathered them up. He also packed out a few small engine parts. "I was always curious who those skull pieces belonged to - I kept them over the years," he said. Erdman, now 70 and a retired airplane mechanic living on the outskirts of Wichita, Kan., kept that curiosity. Although the activities of youth, marriage and a career preoccupied him over the years, he never forgot the bone fragments. "I had asked people about it when I lived there in Northern California," he said. "A lot of people knew about the crash but nobody knew the date when it happened." Finally, in 1997, after several unsuccessful attempts to find out about the crash over the years, he received an official copy of the crash report from the U.S. Air Force. A summary of a similar report was published in the June 11, 1942, issue of the Mail Tribune. The aircraft was a twin-engine Beechcraft F-2, a military plane used for high-elevation photography, piloted by Army Air Corps 1st Lt. Raymond A. Stockwell of Spokane, Wash. The crew members were Tech. Sgts. Randolph Jones of Joplin, Mo., and Paul W. Stone of Bayside, Texas. They were flying from Fort Lewis, Wash., to Sacramento. It was a route that Stockwell knew well. "He had flown this course for a number of years and had many friends here," the paper reported in earlier editions. But that experience didn't bail out the veteran pilot late on the morning of Jan. 6, 1942. Speeding south over Medford at 4,000 feet, he reported at 10:53 a.m. that he was encountering freezing rain. That was his last transmission. A volcanic plug left jutting up into the air by surrounding material that had eroded over the eons, Pilot Rock rises 5,914 feet above sea level just north of the Oregon line in the Siskiyou Mountains. It is now part of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. The rock served as a guide for settlers crossing the pass between what is now Oregon and California - hence the name. It didn't guide Stockwell that day, however. The cloud ceiling was 5,000 feet, well below the base of the rock. The aircraft crashed head-on into the rock about 50 feet from the base on the northeast side, according to the government report. The aircraft was demolished, the aviators killed instantly, it said. "It is believed that the pilot was forced to fly at a low altitude because of severe icing conditions and encountered the rock pinnacle with which he collided," the official report concluded. Although a search was launched immediately after the plane disappeared, a winter storm swept into the mountains shortly after the crash, covering all the evidence with a heavy blanket of snow. The crash site wasn't discovered until June 8 of that year by Ashland resident George E. Miller, a fire warden for the state. Ashland-born Edna Yockel Wray, 74, of Medford, recalls the day the wreckage was found. "George Miller's son, Bob, was a friend of my cousin's," she said. "He told my cousin about it. Naturally, my cousin wanted to go up there." The two invited her and two other youths on the trip in a Model-A Ford that huffed and puffed all the way to the top of the Siskiyou Summit. They hiked east to Pilot Rock. "I remember there was an engine and all kinds of pictures - photographs of mountain ranges," she said. "Parts of that plane were strewn all over." Skeletal remains were also scattered about, she said. "This is kind of grisly, but I happened to be walking along by the rock and there was a hand, just bones, lying there," she said. "There was a man's gold ring on one finger. I took two sticks and took it off." The ring had a missing stone, she said. "I have no idea what happened to that ring," she said. "I had it for a few years but it kind of vanished." A Medford mortician retrieved the skeletal remains on June 11 and immediately shipped them off for burial to their respective hometowns. But remains of that crash were still evident when Erdman hiked to the site nearly a decade later. "They flat smacked Pilot Rock on the east side," Erdman said. "They bored right into the east side of that thing." Erdman, who had worked as a mechanic for the Cessna Aircraft Co. for 38 years, estimates the plane was going 180 mph when it hit the rock. Capable of flying at 25,000 feet, the plane looked similar to the aircraft used by famed aviator Amelia Earhart on her flight into oblivion in 1937, Erdman observed. After discovering the names of those who died in the crash but unable to determine who the bones belonged to, Erdman still had one last mission to accomplish. That mission was on his mind when he attended his 50th high school reunion in Yreka in 1999. He made a private side trip to Beaver Creek, a tributary to the Klamath River some two dozen miles south of Pilot Rock. There, he gently buried the skull fragments and had a quiet moment for the three who died in the 1942 air crash. "It was a secluded spot along the creek," he said. "It was something I had to do. I wanted them to be in a place where they would never be disturbed again." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at MailTribune.com Writer Posted Jan. 6, 2002 at 2:00 AM Updated Feb 16, 2011 at 8:48 AM » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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