Finding the Vultee Plane Crash Site

Several members of the Skyliners hiking group had long wanted to visit the site of the 1938 Vultee plane crash. A 2011 article in the Verde Independent¹, a local newspaper, had whetted our interest and we had already made one unsuccessful attempt last February only to be foiled by an 18-inch snow cover on top of the mountain. Now, reinforced by the accompaniment of Bill Reller, who had visited the site a number of years ago, we set out for another attempt.

Several members of the group left from Cottonwood and drove to Sedona where we met with others at the Burger King Restaurant. From there we continued north on Hwy 89A to meet the final members of our group at Indian Gardens in Oak Creek Canyon. We then proceeded on up the canyon toward Flagstaff, turning left onto Forest Road 535 between mile markers 390 and 391. The best directions we had to the site started at the East Pocket Lookout Tower and we originally planned to start our search from there. The distance to the tower from where we first turned onto FR 535 turned out to be 23.1 miles. The first 5.5 miles (FR 535) was well maintained, the second 3.3 miles (FR 536) contained a few large mudholes that we had to maneuver around and the third section (FR 231) was well maintained but with a few rough spots. With care, the entire route could have been traversed in a normal passenger vehicle, although a high-clearance vehicle is recommended.

As noted, our original intent had been to drive all the way to the lookout tower and start our search from there. The very sketchy directions we had used the tower as a reference point. We found out later that it is not possible to drive all the way to the tower; the road is blocked by a closed gate about 0.5 miles short of it.

As it were. Bill Heller remembered turning off FR 231 for the crash site before actually reaching the tower. That was true; however, we turned off about 1.4 miles too soon. About 0.4 miles after turning off, we reached a spacious parking area, located right on the rim that, that provided an excellent view of the country below us.

From the lot where we parked – looking across Sedona and the 

red rock country

This seemed as good a place as any for a group photograph.

Left to right (standing): Jerry Showalter, Lila Wright, Miriam Sterling, Mike 

McDaniel, Bill Reller, Anita Jackson, Nancy Imus; (kneeling/sitting): 

the author, George Everman, Akemi Tomioka and Dolly Yapp

– photograph by Name Withheld

Although it was now pretty obvious that we were not as near the crash site as we had planned, we decided to leave the cars and start our hike from here anyway.

It was not as though the crash site were unknown; a good number of reports are to be found describing previous visits to it. However, nowhere in any of these reports had I found location coordinates or a good description of how to get there. I think that is partly because the place is so deceptively simple to find once you know where it is. In our case, we were sure that if we just traveled along the rim toward East Pocket, we could not fail to find it.

As we made our way east along the rim, we were constantly treated to great views out over the red rock country. The below photograph, looking across Sedona to Airport Mesa, shows faint contrails from an air show currently in progress there.

Contrails above airport, see slightly right and below center

After traveling for about half a mile along the rim we were once again very close to FR 231 on our left. It grew farther away as we continued along the rim but then grew closer again until, about 1.3 miles from the parking lot, we found ourselves actually hiking on the forest road. We continued along it for about 0.2 miles until we came to an old road, now closed to vehicular traffic, that I later learned was old FR 231, that once led to East Point Tank. Looking straight ahead on the main road (FR 231), we could see a gate across that road about a hundred yards ahead. Someone remembered the gate from a previous trip to the area and thought it was very near the crash site, so we turned south on old FR 231 road and then left it after a short distance to follow more closely along the rim.

When we had hiked far enough that we thought we should have encountered the crash site, we decided to turn northeast and hike to the tower. We could eat lunch there, reorient ourselves and get a fresh start on our search. Additionally, we had been told that the tower would be manned and that we might be able to arrange a visit to the observation booth. That turned out to be the case and the attendant was quite helpful in providing us some additional information to aid us in our search.

After everyone had visited the tower and we had eaten lunch, we headed down FR 231 to the gate and the junction with old FR 231 just beyond it. It turns out that we were actually headed in the right direction when we had previously turned south on that road. We just hadn’t gone far enough. At the tower, we were joined by a Lady from Mesa, AZ who had hiked up A B Young trail and who stayed with us for the remainder of our hike before heading back the way she had come.

The distance to the junction from the tower proved to be just 0.6 miles, as measured by GPS, and on reaching it we once again headed south along the rim. This time we followed the old roadbed for 0.3 miles, to the top of a fairly steep hill, before it veered to the east and we left it to travel south along the rim. It was a lot farther than we had expected and we were about to turn back, thinking that we had simply missed it among the numerous ferns growing along the rim and now sporting their fall rust color. Fortunately, just at that moment someone spotted the small white cross erected at the site in 2011 by Peter Vultee, Jerry's son, and his cousin John Vultee². We had traveled, following closely along the rim as we did, some 1.3 miles from FR 231. Much farther than any of us had thought. The trip back, with no longer any need to hug the rim, was a little shorter, about 1.1 miles.

Memorial cross erected at the Vultee crash site

The blowup displayed below shows the plaque mounted in the center of the cross.

Enlarged view of plaque mounted on cross

The remains of a major part of the airframe assembly can be seen to the right of the cross in the above photograph and debris is scattered over a relatively small area extending from there to the left of the cross. This debris field is seen from another angle in the below photograph.

Vultee crash site debris field

The major part of Jerry Vultee's life and career, along with the history of the company he founded are described in an article appearing on the Davis-Monthan Aviation field Register web page³ and the aforementioned article published in the Verde Independent speculates on why he was flying in such bad weather. I will not elaborate further here, but will leave it to interested readers to review those sources themselves.

Just a few yards beyond the site, we had an exhilarating view from the rim of the Dry Creek watershed. Although we looked very hard, we could not see Vultee Arch from the rim, finally deciding it was obscured from our view by the west wall of Sterling Canyon. Later, I did determine that it is 1.5 miles from the crash site at a bearing of 163⁰ true. The photograph below shows the rough, beautiful country spread out below us.

Dry Creek watershed viewed from the Vultee crash site

On leaving the site, we took the most direct route back to the junction of FR 231 with old FR 231. Meanwhile, three hikers had gone on ahead to retrieve vehicles and meet us at the junction. We all then drove back to the parking area to retrieve a vehicle still parked there. What had been intended as a stroll in the woods, so to speak, become a good hike by the time we had finished and we surely would not have found the site at all without the help of Bill Reller and the information provided by the tower attendant.

The following map (below) shows the immediate area of the crash site and the fire tower. Forest Road 231 is shown in purple, the short drive from FR 231 to the rim parking lot is shown in yellow, the dark green line shows our hike to the tower and the red line shows the most direct route from FR 231 to the crash site. The light green line is A B Young Trail. It is 1.1 miles in length, so a 2.2 mile round trip hike will get you from a car parked at the junction to the site and back. The next time we will know this.

Close up map of the Vultee Crash Site and the East Pocket area

While we were rambling around searching for the crash site, I found a few colorful flowers. The most attractive of these is shown here (left). I am not sure, but I think it may be a desert dahlia.

Meanwhile, Akemi had become fixated on mushrooms. She photographed a number of different specimens, sending those she found most interesting to me for inclusion in the hike report.

Below are Akemi's mushroom photographs. The colorful, spherical one (first two photos below) is poisonous and psychoactive. It was featured in a recent issue of Arizona Highway Magazine⁴ and erroneously listed as edible, causing that issue to be recalled.

Fly agaric or fly amanita mushroom

Fly agaric or fly amanita mushroom

Of the two photographs below the one on the left was included because it is shaped like a heart. The one on the right, on the other hand, turned out on closer examination to be the author taking a nap.

Heart-shaped mushroom

The author posing as a mushroom

We actually hiked 5.4 miles. But just hiking from the FR 231/old FR 231 junction to the crash and back would be 2.2 miles with an elevation gain of 210 feet and a highest elevation of 7025 feet.

1 http://verdenews.com/main.asp?SectionID=74&SubsectionID=114&ArticleID=43609

2 http://verdenews.com/main.asp?SectionID=74&SubsectionID=114&ArticleID=43609

3 http://www.dmairfield.com/people/vultee_je/

4 http://arizonahighways.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/arizona-highways-magazine-issues-statement-about-october-issue/