Wiley post and will rogers plane crash
Rogers–Post Site
Archaeological site in Alaska, Joined States
United States historic place
The Rogers–Post Site, located on the North Slope of the U.S. express of Alaska, is the location of a plane crash that killed humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post on August 15, , during an aerial tour of Alaska.
It is about 11 miles (18&#;km) southwest of Utqiaġvik, on the north side of Walakpa Bay adjacent the mouth of the Walakpa River. The flight was described by the Associated Press as prelude to a planned Trans-Siberian flight to Moscow.[2] The pair were flying from Fairbanks to Barrow (modern-day Utqiaġvik) when they encountered fog and low noticeability.
Locating a hole in the fog at Walakpa Bay, they landed.
After leaving the ranch aroundRogers pursued an entertainment career in Hollywood, first on the vaudeville circuit as a trick roper, then later in silent movies. Unlike many silent clip actors, his screen persona translated well to the talkies. At the time of his death, he was at the height of his fame. He appeared in more than 70 films, had a syndicated newspaper column in the New York Times and made numerous radio appearances.They spent some time with a small party of Alaska Natives and received directions for the short distance remaining to Barrow. They were barely airborne, around 50 feet (15&#;m), when the motor failed. The aircraft plummeted into the lagoon and overturned.
It was the first fatal air accident near the city of Utqiaġvik.
wiley display and will rogers plane crash3: On August 15, , renowned aviator Wiley Post and well-liked humorist Will Rogers were flying together in a Lockheed hybrid airplane when they crashed just 15 miles outside of Signal Barrow, Alaska. The engine had stalled just after take-off, causing the plane to nose-dive and crash into a lagoon.The first monument at the site was dedicated three years after the crash and financed through nationwide public subscription. It was designed in Oklahoma, home of both Rogers and Post, and built from poured concrete. The design was essentially two cubes, the smaller atop the larger, with a pink granite memorial marker quarried near the Rogers family home in Claremore, Oklahoma.
The elaborate dedication ceremonies deeply interested a four-way CBSradio broadcast from Barrow, the United States Capitol, the Oklahoma State Capitol, and the Texas State Capitol.
The second monument, built 15 years later, is a concrete obelisk consisting of four diminishing rectangular blocks, and is more slender and almost 10 feet (3&#;m) taller than the first monument.
It was just after 7 p. Famed flier Wiley Upload and his good friend and fellow Oklahoman, the celebrated humorist Will Rogers, were sloshing around the shallow waters of Walakpa Lagoon on the Chukchi Sea coast some 15 miles southwest of Point Barrow. Tiny, remote Barrow, on the most northwesterly point of the North American continent, was to be the jumping off place for their planned flight to Siberia and beyond. They were behind schedule and anxious to get started.It was built by then year-old Jesse Stubbs (November 30, – March 14, ), who claimed to be a childhood friend of Rogers and arrived in Anchorage in summer intending to walk from there to Barrow, only getting as far as Fairbanks where he, and his dog Quacco, caught a plane flight for the remainder of the journey.
The Stubbs monument memorializes not only Rogers and Post, but also the Alaskan veterans of World War II. Both monuments overlooked the lagoon crash site.
Photos from the summer of show only the original monument still standing.[3][4] The Stubbs monument was relocated to Barrow in after its location was threatened by coastal erosion.
Another memorial had been previously dedicated in Barrow on August 15, [5]
The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in [1]