Legend Down

LEGEND DOWN It has been said that the mountains draw to them the things that fly, and the mountains and ridges of Wrightwood and Big Pines are no different than the others. The things that flew included the birds, the old time ski jumpers, an occasional hiker tumbling off a mountain side, and the military aircraft sharpening their skills in the narrow canyons. Years ago, aircraft from nearby Edwards Air Force base and El Toro Base practiced their combat skills in the hills surrounding Wrightwood. The loud whining and cracking sounds of their turbines echoed throughout the air as excited horses tossed their heads, flicked their tails and ran around the corrals. Higher up, rocks tumbled and dust was raised as spooked bighorn and deer make it for cover. To mountain residents, our eyes were directed upward to catch sight of the streak of the jet reaching the sky. To some, the jets blasting the canyons were a nuance, but to others, we watched with fascination. It has also been said that what goes up comes down, and our mountains have their share of those things flying...crashing. Like personal treasures, our local mountains still hold the wreckage of downed aircraft. Even the town of Wrightwood was not immune when a military jet crashed on Oriole Street in 1945, directly in front of a young Pat Krig on horseback. But in 1965, a gentle ridge below present day Grassy Hollow became the last resting place for an aviator legend. Her name was Joan Merriam Smith, “Joanne” to those that knew and loved her. Surviving brother in-law Richard MacDonald remembered her infectious bubbly personality that touched everyone around her. Her favorite song was Chuck Berry’s “Maybelline”. Her lasting trademark was the black leather flight coat that she always wore and her undying desire to be flying high in the wild blue. Smith spent her childhood and teen years at home in Boston, Massachusetts, where she developed two distinct interests: devotion to her role model, baseball legion Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics, and flying airplanes. Soon, flying came foremost, and she later went to Miami, Florida, to learn how to fly from the best. At 15 years of age, long before she could drive a car, Joan Smith learned to fly, and she later soloed after only nine hours. She obtained her license at 17 years of age, and her commercial license at 23, both being the minimum ages for each of these licenses. It was around age 18 that she applied for a job at a small airport that used to exist in Boston. The airport manager took one look at the small 5 foot tall girl and no doubt wondered how she was even able to reached an airplane’s flight controls. “Look, squirt!” He said gruffly. “Go home to mommy!” Undaunted, Smith advised the manager that she had enough flight hours to qualify for the job. She marched right home and returned with flight records in hand. As the manager thumbed through her records, a stunned look crossed his face as he read that Joanne had accumulated 10,000 hours of flight time! Humbled, he handed her flight records back and said, “Shucks, little gal! Ya ought to be running this airport!” Smith was on her way to becoming a legend and fulfilling her dream…to re-trace Amelia Earhart’s trip around the world route and finishing it. Over the years, Joan Smith married Howard Jerome, the brother of Richard MacDonald. But the marriage between the young pilot girl and the marine shortly ended in divorce. She thought that flying was more interesting than having children. She later married San Diego US Navy pilot , Lt Commander M.G. (Jack) Smith, who supported her in her round-the-world flight. Joan Merriam Smith flew 27,750 miles in 56 days with 34 landings in her route round-the-world, but the flight wasn't without incident. She was caught in a Brazilian revolution and delayed after a tense situation in Indonesia. Then she

was grounded by nose wheel problems in Guam, then engine problems, and then she had to face a fuel tank leak and a sudden hydraulic failure. She overcame all of these difficulties and arrived back in the good U.S. of A., making a safe landing in Oakland, CA on May 12, 1964. Smith did not make any official speed record in that famous flight, but she made some records: First solo flight along the Equator First woman to fly around the world in a twin engine aircraft First woman to fly solo from Africa to Australia First woman to fly from Wake Island to Midway Island The longest flight at the time Smith’s flight records included the prestigious Trophée de la Ligue Internationale des Aviateurs, Trophée des Aviatrices, and the prestigious Harmon Trophy in 1964. Joan Merriam Smith's connection with the Wrightwood area came nine months after her legendary flight around the world, during a simple routine flight over the San Gabriel Mountains near Blue Ridge. Six months earlier, Smith walked away without a scratch when her twin engine Piper Apache named “City of Long Beach” crashed. Because of that, the 5’ gutsy pilot was forced to borrow a CESSNA 182C and she took a female friend on a routine pleasure flight from Long Beach and around the mountains of Wrightwood. END OF PART ONE Joan Merriam Smith was known to be an excellent pilot and not one to take dangerous chances. Who knows if she knew about the experimental engine that had been installed into the aircraft to provide meto power to allow a flight ceiling of twenty-five thousand feet. While Smith flew southeast near Grassy Hollow, she and her friend in the right seat must have been talking about the beautiful mountains and non-eventful flight as the right wing suddenly folded backward! Suddenly there was airframe failure in flight and the small plane dropped like a stone! The plane tipped to the right and slammed against the rocky brush oak and Jeffery Pine filled ridge just below Grassy Hollow and then burst into flames! Long time Wrightwood resident G. S. Corpe, father of local historian Pat Krig, was returning home on Angeles Forest Highway when he saw the group of fire trucks and Forest Service personal providing rescue services to those in the downed plane and fighting the small brush fire that it started. A crash investigation report would later reveal that the cause of the crash was "Pilot Error"- pilot exceeding the limits of the aircraft. Leave it to a tiny 5 foot female pilot to push a big-o plane to the point of breaking up. But at the crash site no one pondered on that. In the silence of the pines was the occasional sound of a shovel bit clanging against the rocky soil and then the streeck! of a red-tailed hawk overhead. And through the late morning lazy smoke trails, the Cessna’s raised tail-number N8784T- revealed the last stop for a legendary pilot. For over forty years, Joan Merriam Smith’s old brother in-law, Robert MacDonald, had looked for the site where she crashed and the place where she was buried. With the assistance of a Wrightwood historian, and this humble author, an aging man from across the county was finally able to lie flowers at the grave of his beloved family member. A quiet spot near a shade tree at plot 5027, at Forest Lawn

Memorial Park in Cypress, California. Finally, after forty-two years of fruitless searching for his long lost sister-in-law, he was finally able to reunited with her in a way. We were glad because he finally had closure. As for the tall rough mountains of the San Gabriels, the bits and pieces of over a dozen military and private aircraft that have crashed on her slopes over the years, still litter the area. Like their own personal treasure, the quiet canyons hold an old fuselage here, and engine there, and a torn wing and cockpit over yonder. Thankfully, all of the planes’ pilots and passengers have found their way home. And the mountains wait patiently…for the next flying thing to fall from the sky. From the History of Big Pines, by Terry Graham