Northwest History. Will Rogers

• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1936
• Subjects: C.S Holmes; Captain John Backland; Rescue of the important parts of the crashed plane that carried Will Rogers; Northwest; Pacific > History > 20th century; United States > Will Rogers > 20th century; Arctic; Pacific; eskimo*; Point Barrow; Tundra
• Online Access: http://content.libraries.wsu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/clipping/id/85517

ROGERS' PLANE PARTS RETURNED ROGERS' PLANE PARTS RETURNED Aboard the four-masted sailing schooner C. S. Holmes, which arrived in Seattle yesterday after a trading cruise to the Arctic were the propeller, engine and instruments of the airplane in which Will Rogers and Wiley Post met death thirteen months ago when they crashed near Point Barrow. The Holmes' skipper, Capt. John Backland, dropped his voice when he spoke of the jumbled wreckage which still is piled up on the beach near Barrow, twelve miles from the tundra wasteland where the plane crashed early on the morning of August 15, 1935. Broken wings and battered fuselage lie on Alaska's Arctic shore. "It was a job getting the airplane equipment aboard." said Captain Backland. "That's a 750 horsepower engine and weighs close to a ton. We built a catamaran of Eskimo boats to get her aboard from the beach. They wanted only the engine, the propeller and the instruments. The rest is worthless. The pontoons are smashed. The tanks are split. Captain Backland laughd at reports current last month in Seattle that the C. S. Holmes was overdue at Kotzebue. He laughed also at reports that the Eskimos are starving. "Eskimos can't starve, though they may be hungry for white man's grub," said Captain Back- land. "The whole country is full of ducks and geese and caribou. After a time they lose their self-reliance. They get hungry for what they've been used to. But we just took up 250 tons of grub for them —flour, sugar and canned goods.