What we know
On Saturday, Feb. 26, 1944, in snow and overcast, a B-17 Flying Fortress from Clovis Army Air Base, New Mexico, on a training flight from Clovis to Denver and back, lost radio contact about 15 minutes into the return leg and crashed on the Rampart Range's east face in the Pike National Forest. All ten men aboard died: 2nd Lts. Joseph J. Beeson Jr. (pilot), Harry B. Davis, Harry L. Barry and Jack T. Laird; Capt. Fred Gentry; and Cpls. Ralph C. Judah, Glenn L. Stutsman, James F. Perry, James R. Young and Joseph J. Fendrick. The wreck was not found until May 22, 1945 (Larry Schlupp, Larkspur Historical Society, 2008, S-0045).
Where it was
Generalized. Estimated from the Larkspur society's schematic locator map ('Larkspur B17' pin, west-northwest of Larkspur) and its text ('east of Rampart Range Road and Forest Road 327,' about 800 feet below a ridge of house-sized boulders) (S-0045). The true site may be a mile or two from this point; no section or road distance is given.
Placed from a written description, such as a land section, a distance from a landmark or an old survey note.
Sources
- S-0045: Larkspur Historical Society website (larkspurhistoricalsociety.org)
Sources are named in the text above. Numbers such as S-0080 refer to our source list. Most newspaper quotations were read in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. Long quotations from recent books are shortened here.