National Park After Dark - The Man Who Came Back: Charley-Yukon Rivers National Preserve

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

Lt. Leon Crane survived a devastating plane crash only to be stranded in the remote wilderness of Alaska. When a rescue mission fails to locate him, he spends the next 81 days fighting for his life.For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Murder: True Crime Stories: Listen to new episodes every Tuesday wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Quince: Use our link to get free shipping and 365-day returns.Liquid IV: Use code NPAD at checkout to get 20% off you first order.Rocket Money: Use our link to get started saving. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Sitting at home, cozy on the couch, watching reality TV shows is a household favorite for a lot of people. Shows like, Naked and Afraid, Alone, and Outlast, peak the interest to those of us who find outdoor survival in terms. We put on our cosiest clothes, grab our popcorn and our biggest blankets, and snuggle in for a good binge watch of someone trying to hack it out in the wilderness. From the comfort of our homes, we can critique their choices and say things like, I would have never done that when they make mistakes. But the truth is, the majority of us are not outdoor survivalists. Sure, we might know how to start a fire, decipher the directions of north and south, or identify.

a plant or two, but most of us have never needed to know how to survive in the wild, and given the chance, we would probably make a lot of mistakes as well. What would your chances really be if you found yourself stranded in a remote tundra relying strictly on yourself for your own survival? The odds probably aren't good, but they're not zero. In fact, there's lots of stories of people with little experience who beat the odds and make it. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Your favorite type of story, a survival story. Yes, I'm back. I feel like it's been a little bit

since I did a survival story, so I'm excited to dive into this one. And I know it's, you said it's long, so. My notes are long. Sometimes it goes a little bit faster when we're talking, but my notes are longer than usual when I write episodes. Okay. Well, I'm ready to hear it. Cool. So today I will be telling the story of Lieutenant Leon Crane, who went down in a B-24 plane crash and survived 81 days in the remote wilderness of Alaska in the dead of winter in 1943. And he was the sole survivor of his five crewmates. His story is one that's devastating. It's full of strength and will to live and ultimately led to him saving his life. And a lot of other things contributed to that as well that we'll get into. But before we dive into this,

because this is a World War II story, I did want to mention because people notice this. When I did the Palau story, I said that World War II was 1939 to 1949. And I just want everyone to know that I am aware that World War II ended in 1945. And it was a total slip of the mouth. Like I read faster than I spoke and I misspoke. Even my notes at 1945. I'm glad everyone knows their history. And people know that it ended in World War, that World War II ended in 1945.

But I am also aware. So the people who said really mean things to me and called me stupid, I am aware. And I know that. And thank you. That's the end of my TED Talk. Thank you for your criticism. And for everyone who very nicely pointed it out to me, thank you as well. I'm glad you know your history.

Yeah. Well, I mean, mistakes happen and you're human and it's, you don't have to explain it to most people. When I did hear that, I was like, no, I've read so many World War II books. How did I say that? And I went, I immediately went to my notes and I looked. I'm like, I wrote 1945. It just came. It just came out. Yeah. Yeah. That's okay. We forgive you. I forgive you. I don't know about everybody else. But you're all that matters. Okay. Great. And everyone else, I guess, too. Yeah. Well, yeah, everyone else matters. Yeah. But anyway, so this is a story that took place during World War II. And I, of course, found a book on it. So before we go into it, I just wanted to give a book recommendation because I really loved reading this book. And I used. And I used. And I, of course, found a book on it. So before we go into it, I just wanted to give a book recommendation. And I really loved reading this book. And I, and I I used it a lot for my research. It's called 81 Days Below Zero by Brian Murphy. Okay. All right. And it's in Alaska. So where we're at in Alaska? Yeah. Another national park in Alaska, we're going to Yukon Charlie Rivers National Preserve.

Oh my God. I'm reading a, well, not actively reading a book about it, but I started it when we were in Alaska. I found it at a bookshop together about this preserve. And it takes place in this park? Yeah, it's about a wolf. And it's called The Wanderer. Do you remember when I found that? Yeah, I do remember that. That's, I mean, it takes place in a lot of places because obviously the wolf wanders around, moves around, and he visits a lot of different areas that are national park managed. But it's really centered around this preserve. Oh, wow. That's really cool. That's fun. Because I didn't really know that much about, I mean, Alaska has so many national parks. We'll be back to Alaska a ton of times for national parks and they'll all be different ones. But this one I thought was really interesting. So that's cool that you also have a tie into it.

And I also did want to everyone to keep in mind that while it is part of the National Park Service and it's a National Preserve today, during the time of the story, it was not protected land and it was not managed. And it is a very, it's still a very remote area, but it's even more remote when this story takes place. Gotcha. So this park preserves 2.5 million acres of the Yukon and Charlie Rivers, including 106 River, miles of the Charlie and its entire 1.1 million acre watershed. The Yukon River flows through the

central territory of northwestern Canada and the central region of Alaska, extending 1,980 miles or 3,190 kilometers. The Charlie River originates in the Yukonan-Tanana area and flows north about 108 miles until it joins the Yukon River. It was established as a National Preserve on December 2, 1980, under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. It's located on the east central Canadian border of Alaska, and it's made up entirely of backcountry. So there's no roads, there's no established hiking trails, there's no campgrounds, or visitor services in the entire park.

Backcountry camping is allowed with permits, and visitors generally come to float the river and camp on the gravel and sandbars along the river. To get into the park, visitors travel by air or use a road system from two small towns that are near the preserved boundaries, but then they must enter by water to get into the park because there's no established trails. The two road options leave you several miles from the preserved boundary.

One is in the historic town of Eagle, Alaska, with a population of 83 people. So when I say it's a small town, I mean, it's extremely rural. This town also has a visitor center and a gravel road from there that remains only open from April to mid-October and ends on the banks of the Yukon River, where then you have to travel by river for 12 miles until you're in the preserve. So still very, you're not close. Yeah, it's a journey. The other road begins in Fairbanks, Alaska, and after 162 miles of travel,

brings you to the town of Circle, Alaska, with a population of 45 people. So even smaller. And this road is technically open year round, but it opens and closes dependent on weather conditions. And you land about 14 miles downstream from the preserve boundaries. and then you must travel by water to get into the preserve. When researching why this area was important and was able to earn National Park status, I found a very informative paragraph on the National Park website that I just wanted to read because the park has both ecological and historical value,

and I just thought that they summed it up really well on the National Park site. So it's short and sweet into the point. It says Yukon-Charlie River's National Preserve is one of the few locations in the world where an important span of Earth's geologic history related to the evolution of early organisms is recorded in an uninterrupted sequence of fossil-bearing sedimentary rocks dating from 620 million to 70 million years ago. It is an area of unglaciated valleys where remnant vegetation species are found and where many of the questions about early populations in Alaska might be answered. It contains examples of nearly all of the common

landforms in plant and animal communities of the interior of Alaska. High mountain ice fields field Cirk lakes, rivers plunged down mountain sides and twist through the rolling valleys, and the resident wildlife include healthy populations of doll sheep, caribou, moose, and grizzly, and one of the largest breeding populations of Paragon Falcons in North America. Cultural resources include the potential for evidence of early man and historic cabins, and gold dredges that recall bygone errors of the fur trade and the Yukon gold rush are found throughout. And that's what the National Parks Ever said, which I thought painted a really nice picture of

everything that's there and then also the historic. So the gold rush was huge here. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after,

The Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. The story I'm going to tell today is about Lieutenant Leon Crane, who was part of a Jewish family in Pennsylvania, but found himself in Alaska after being stationed at Fort Laude during World War II. Fort Laud today is known as Fort Wayne Ray and is located in Fairbanks, Alaska.

But I'll be referring to it as Fort Laud throughout the episode just because that's what it was at the time of this story. And he was from Pennsylvania, had very limited outdoor experience, did not have experience in the crazy winters of Alaska and the negative degrees. He went to MIT and earned his engineering degree and he was a very smart person, but he didn't have the experience that a lot of like outdoorsmen in Alaska have. Of course, yeah. And of course he had like basic military training and some things there, but very minimal in terms of surviving outside. Lieutenant Leon Crane was a part of the United States Army Air Corps and was moved to Alaska after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Troops were sent to Alaska as a form of defense

against the Japanese during the war, and the major use of Ladfield was primarily cold weather testing of aircrafts and equipment. Alaska was the best place to offer consistent freezing temperatures to test out their military equipment in cold weather. A lot of these tests included maneuvering aircrafts to simulate different issues, such as an engine failure to see how the planes would perform under extreme weather. So basically, they're tasked to take these planes and put them in scary situations and see if the planes can hack it. If they know that they can in certain conditions and now they're in negative 50 degrees Fahrenheit weather doing the same thing to see if the planes can still do it, which I think is terrifying, but that was their job. Yeah, don't sign me up for that. No, no thank you.

And Fairbanks in the wintertime is regularly in the negatives, and each winter will reach temperatures around negative 50 degrees Fahrenheit. And it is like common for that to be negatives every day for months on end. The day of the plane crash was a normal day for Lieutenant Crane, except for the fact that he had overslept for his shift at work. It was December 21st, 1943, and he had forgotten to set his alarm after a night of staying up late and playing poker with his friends. He was supposed to be co-piloting a B-24 bomber plane that they would run test maneuvers on that day.

His primary job as co-pilot would be keeping a close watch on the plane, checking the fuel, and loading up the parachutes. If you have listened to a recent episode that I did, which I mentioned at the beginning that I covered in Palau, and the B-24 bombers used in that mission, then you might be a little bit familiar with this aircraft. But if not, no worries, I'm going to give you a little overview of these planes. So these B-24 planes were massive, weighing about 36 tons empty and was designed to carry heavy loads long distance, but was known to have a particularly bumpy ride. It earned the nickname the pregnant cow and the flying coffin. I remember that. I remember you saying that. Yes. And this was because of its size, but also because it tended to catch fire under attack and the corridors of the plane were so

cramped that in the event of an emergency, if they needed to jump out, parachute out, it was really difficult for the pilots to escape and get to the door or get to an exit point. However, the advantage of these planes and why they were using them at the time was because they had an ability to fly very long distances. That morning, Lieutenant Crane, who was running over half an hour late to work, hurried to put on his winter gear to protect him from the brutally cold winter day. His branch was one of the luckier ones as they had just partnered with. Eddie Bauer, who was supplying some of the best of the time downfilled gear.

This gear had made a huge difference in their abilities to withstand the cold weather. It was negative 20 degrees Fahrenheit that day, and he made sure that he was prepared for that weather. He had seen other instances where people weren't prepared and suffered severe frostbite, and even in one instance, a mechanic lose the skin on his hand after grabbing a metal pipe in freezing temperatures without gloves on. Yikes. I can't even imagine.

I've never been in cold like that. before, but no, man. When he was zipping up his parka, he noticed a letter from his father was still in his pocket. He had just skimmed over it briefly, but now he had remembered it was there and decided to leave it in his pocket to read over later. His roommate agreed to give him a lift to the job site so he would get there quicker, and on the way there, they stopped at the store. Part of his job as a co-pilot was to make things easier for the pilot, who he knew that day was going to be second lieutenant Harold Hoskin, and he always had a tobacco pipe on hand and he knew that he would want to smoke. They had multiple test missions that day, and he knew it would be a long shift,

so he stopped at the store to get him some matches and then stuffed them in his pocket. When Lieutenant Crane arrived at the hangar, everyone was in high gear, working and starting the day. He had missed the briefing on the mission and found the pilot checking the weather reports for the day. He didn't seem to care that he was late and instead filled him in on what was going on. He told him the weather wasn't looking good, but that was pretty normal for their flights. He then proceeded to tell him the cold weather tests that they would be performing that day. They would leave Fairbanks and head east and conduct feathering tests. This required shutting down one of the B24's four engines and adjusting the props until they offered the least resistance to airflow.

And the book explains this a little bit and they say that you can compare it to sticking your hand out the window in a moving car and finding the most aerodynamic position of your hand is kind of similar to what they were doing. This is an important maneuver that needs to be done in the event of an engine failure and is a standard test that is performed. However, the cold weather of Alaska makes everything more complicated and more difficult. These tests were also known to not always work, and stories of plane crashes were well known to the soldiers. Just eight months before Lieutenant Crane was stationed in Alaska, a B-24 test mission was conducted to mimic a previous crash. suspecting that the cold had fouled up the hydraulics and oil lines, but the plane went into a nosedive and killed all seven people on board. And that's your job is to mimic a plane crash that happened and hope not to crash.

I know. Like the whole time I was reading this, I'm like, the anxiety, honestly, yeah. Like, no thank you. I quit the military. I know AWOL is bad and stuff, but like jail over. Jail over crushing a plane. Yeah. as someone who's afraid of crashing in a plane.

And jail. I'm also afraid to jail. I'm very much afraid to jail. Well, that morning went as routinely as usual. Everyone in the hangar had their specific jobs and went over all the maintenance and protocols before the flight. Just before 9.40 a.m., their B-24 bomber named the iceberg Anise, taxied out to the runway, and shortly after they were airborne.

There was a total of five of them on board, pilot second lieutenant Harold Hoskin, co-pilot, First Lieutenant Leon Crane, first engineer, master sergeant Richard Pompeo, radio operator, staff sergeant Ralph Wenz, and propeller specialist, First Lieutenant James Sibbert. At this time of morning in Alaska, it was dark out, and the sun wouldn't be out for another hour. So remember, this is the middle of winter when they have almost no daylight.

So they needed to perform their tests before sunset, which would be at 241 p.m. So it's almost 10 a.m., the sun's not out, and then it's going to be, it's going to set at 2.41. These tests were taking longer than expected due to weather, and the pilot needed to find a break in the clouds to perform the feathering tests. They needed to do it at 15,000 feet, 20,000 feet, and 25,000 feet. At 11.08 a.m., he radioed back to Fort Ladd that they were searching for a place to perform the tests. At this time, they were about 65 miles to the east away from base over an area of Alaska known as Big Delta.

The area is where the Delta River and the Tanana River meet and had a military base there. as well. Just about noontime, they found a break in the clouds large enough to perform their higher altitude tests. So they started with a 20,000 foot one. The control panels read that the temperature outside was nearly minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit. I can't even fathom that amount of colds. I know people live in it and have dealt with it, but just not for me. Like the slightest bit of anything wet, like your breath, if you sweat, just immediately turns dyes. So they run their first feathering test and everything looked good. They had some of their gauges glitch for a moment, but otherwise it went smoothly.

Based on that, they decided to keep climbing to check off their 25,000 foot test. As they climbed higher, the cloud cover moved in, and Lieutenant Crane took out his notebook to log their altitude and airspeed. All of the sudden, the plane took a dive and began to spin in a downward spiral, slamming both the pilots into the control panel. The plane had stalled while moving too slow, gaining altitude. Toon. Cruising speed was about 300 miles per hour, but now they were moving so fast that the gauge was in the red. The controls were blinking and going haywire, and it was only a matter of seconds before they broke through the clouds and had full view of the mountains getting closer and closer.

They were able to gain some control over the plane and the spinning slowed. They were able to get the spinning to stop, but they were still moving much faster than they should have been. The pilot tried to move the nose of the plane a little bit higher to slow the plane down, but a second later, they fell in. to a spin in the opposite direction, and now they were pointing straight down towards the ground. Both Lieutenant Crane and second Lieutenant Hoskin pulled hard to try to straighten the plane, but to no avail. Instead, a loud shot-like sound came from the tail of the plane, and then cracking noises occurred. The plane was bouncing around, pointing up, and dropping again suddenly. The hope they had to gain control of the plane was gone, and they knew that they were going to crash.

Lieutenant Crane called back to Sergeant Pompeo to open the Bombay, which would allow space for the crew to parachute out. He followed his orders, and just as he did, minus 70 degree air entered the aircraft, and again, the plane went into a spin. Lieutenant Crane, who had been wearing gloves, took them off to secure his parachute and called to the pilot to forget the plane and that it was time to bail. He then left the cockpit and stumbled through the narrow rear of the plane. It was difficult to get through, which was a painful reminder of why this plane was

referred to as a flying coffin. Sergeant Pompeo had his shoe on and was ready to jump. but he was hesitating. He didn't have his downfield gear on. Instead, he had on an electric heated flight suit that offered little to no protection when not plugged in. Lieutenant Crane made his way to the exit point and looked back to see where Hoskins was. But he was still near the radio controls messing with the parachute harness. The next moment, he was falling out of the plane, and a few moments later, he pulled his shoot.

It opened without issue, and as he slowly floated through the sky, he watched the iceberg and as go down. He saw another parachute leave the plane and go behind the ridge. Then the plane rocked and spun before plummeting into a mountain slope, and it was immediately engulfed in flames so large that he knew no one inside could survive it. Lieutenant Crane had no way of knowing whose parachute he saw. He thought it was either Hoskins or Pompeo's, but he was fairly certain it was not any of the other crew members on the plane, as when he made his way from the exit point, they were nowhere nearby. When he landed on the ground in the deep, powdery snow, he was.

about two miles away from the crash and could see it burning. He called out to both Hoskins and Pompeo, but there was no response. His first thoughts went to his rescue. He knew when the plane didn't return, the military would send out a team. The burning plane could help them find him, but quickly his hope changed. The last radio communication they had was about an hour before the crash, which was an oversight on their end. They should have been radioing every half hour. If they had been, they would have made a radio call just minutes before the plane started to go down, and the people back at base would have had their coordinates. Now, their last known location was most likely hundreds of miles away. Oh, no. And to realize that just as you land and are watching the plane burn. Yeah. Yeah,

not a great realization to have. Like, how are they going to find me? On top of that, Lieutenant Crane had taken his gloves off to fit his parachute on, and in the chaos of everything, he forgot to put them back on. It was 20 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, and frostbite was now a huge concern. But he remembered in his pockets were the matches he had bought for the pilot, and he had the ability to make a fire.

The lack of humidity in the air helped to keep the sticks he gathered dry even in the winter weather conditions. But after using a few of his matches and adding dry pine needles, with it not lighting, he was getting concerned. He didn't have many matches to spare,

especially because he didn't know when rescue would come, and the ability to have a fire would determine whether he lived or died. He then remembered that he had the paper from his dad's letter also in his pocket. He grabbed it and used the whole thing and started a fire. He warmed his hands on it, which were already showing signs of frostbite. His parachute was made of silk, which actually provided a lot of protection from the cold. This would be vital for the protection of his hands and he could use it to wrap them up. Now he was using it as a sleeping bag and wrapped himself up next to the fire.

This would be the first of 81 nights he would spend awaiting rescue. Lieutenant Crane was right to be worried about their last radio call location. When they didn't return, the military sent on a rescue team and they were scouring the mountains for any sign of them. But the problem was that they set their search radius to around their last radio call. They didn't know it at the time, but their closest efforts were still over 65 miles away from the crash site. The following morning, Lieutenant Crane weighed his options.

The fire from the plane crash was already dwindling, and the possibility of being found in the location they were in seemed unlikely. He had always been taught to stay near the crash site, and that would provide the best likelihood of survival, but there were so many variables. The winter weather causes low visibility on most days. The cold he was in was hardly survivable for long, and the location of the crash was surrounded by trees and brush and everything that could essentially conceal the location of the crash. It was kind of an open area, but there was just so much that could fog, whatever. There was just so many things that could conceal the location of the crash, especially once the fire wasn't there. What he did know was that he was somewhere along the Charlie River, which would eventually feed into the Yukon River. These were known areas of fishermen, and it was possible that he could find a fishing cabin somewhere nearby.

He also really didn't know at what part he was at, and it was possible that there was a small town somewhere within miles of him. He had 35 matches left, and he had heard stories of plane crashes never being found. It didn't take him long to decide that he would move, and he would head down the river in hopes to find some civilization. It was very hard and slow moving. Some of the snow was waist high, and walking on top of the river ice didn't seem doable. Even through the middle of winter, the water underneath kept flowing, which gave him a source of drinking water, but the ice was too thin and dangerous to walk on in some areas.

Instead, he trudged through the deep snow. It took him hours to cover just one mile, and he didn't know it at the time, but the closest roadway was over 75 miles away. There wasn't enough hours in daylight to walk for long, and by early afternoon, he found a spot to make camp for the night again. He was able to find a spot in the river to drink water from, and with spruce needles and a few matches, he lit another fire. By the fire, he checked out his hands, which he had been trying to keep warm tucked

in his park of pockets, but it hadn't been adequate protection. His fingertips were white and they were difficult to move. The idea that he could just walk to find someone was fading and seemed unrealistic with the cold temperatures. He decided it would be better to stay and make camp for the week. That way he could keep his hands warm by the fire and not use as much energy when he didn't have food. He was still not far from the crash site and he knew from the protocols of other crashes. After a week, if they were not found, they would give up their search. Then he would have no other option than to try and walk out.

So he sat and he waited. The days were short and the nights were long, and each day he saw no sign of rescue. He counted the sunrises and sunsets, and after four days, he realized it was Christmas day. He hadn't eaten since before the crash, and starvation was setting in. He had been able to drink enough water with the river there, and sometimes ate handfuls of snow to feel like he was eating, but now he knew it was really time to find something. Fishing would be impossible, and he had little means to hunt. All he had on him that would help him was a pocket knife he always kept.

carried. He remembered from his military manuals that said, you can consume anything green that animals eat as long as it doesn't have an intensely bitter taste. He considered this thought and the several squirrels he had seen and what they were eating, although it was hard to tell if it was stuff they had recently found or stored for the winter. He was able to find clumps of moss peeking out from the snow, and from his hunger he decided to try it. He grabbed a clump and put it in his mouth, he chewed it the best he could and swallowed, but it stuck to the insides of his throat and made him gag and choke. He managed to wash it down with some snow, but knew that this was not going to be an option for survival. He needed to find a way to hunt, and the squirrels in the trees

seemed to be the easiest option. He sharpened a stick into his spear and tried to kill squirrels in the forest, but they were too quick. He then fastened rope from the parachute to make a bow and arrow, but it didn't shoot fast or far enough. He tried to make a slingshot, but had the same issue as the bow and arrow. He got so frustrated, he tried to just throw rocks at them. But he made a little bit. He every single time. He spent so much time doing this, he forgot about the exposure of his hands, and the frostbite and numbness worsened. Discarried by his attempts, he spent the next four days in hibernation mode, only moving from his sleeping bag to stoke the fire and drink water. Four more days and still no rescue. It had been over a week since the crash now, and he knew what that meant. No

rescue team was coming for him. His only choice that he had left if he wanted to live was that he would have to walk out. Meanwhile, back in Pennsylvania, Lieutenant Crane's family received a telegram from Alaska. It read, The Secretary of War desires me to express his deep regret that your son, First Lieutenant Leon Crane, has been reported missing since 21 December in Alaska. No other information was offered at that time. To literally nothing else. Like, oh, just so you know, he's missing. He's missing. And like, no follow-up information, no... No reason why he's missing. Like, they didn't mention his... plane's missing. They just said he's missing. Yeah, that's torturous.

Lieutenant Crane briefly toyed with the idea of leaving the river and walking into the forest towards Big Delta, where he knew there would be a military base. After an afternoon of trudging into the forest through deep snow and steep hills, he turned around. The terrain was much more difficult to navigate and his legs became numb from the deep snow quickly. He wasted a day of doing this before he ended up back at the same camp and spending the night by the river and fire again. The following morning on December 30th, he began his trek for survival. He decided that he would walk on the ice of the river, although this was risky and he knew that, but it was much easier and faster to navigate than climbing over the rocks and snow along the riverbank.

The snow was a lot less deep on the ice, and there were even some spots that had no snow, so it was much more easy for him to navigate. When he began, he was feeling surprisingly strong for how long he had gone without food. His first day leaving proved to be a very successful one. At about 3 p.m., just before the sun would start to set, he stumbled across a cabin. The cabin was abandoned, but it had provisions from whoever was there before. Wrapped in a burlap sack on the table, he found sugar, a tin of cocoa, a sack of dried milk, half a dozen cans of baking powder, and a box of reasons.

He shoved the raisins into his mouth and ate them so quickly he was full within minutes. The lack of food for so long made it harder to eat more, but he was. a static. He thought surely that a town had to be nearby if someone had a cabin there. He also found a woodburning stove with plenty of firewood and made a fire. The cabin was warm and he made himself a tin cup full of hot cocoa. Which, I mean, after a week of not having anything to get to sit by a fire and the warmth drinking a cup of hot cocoa just sounds like the best thing that you could come across. Yeah, such a reprieve. Yeah. I was like, yes, thank you. Outside the cabin, he found a tent on stilts and climbed in to see what was inside. He found two heavy tarps with boxes under each of them.

One of those had tools, hammers, drill bits, saws, and a coil of sturdy rope, two folded tents, and two big cans of animal fat known as tallow. That night, he slept warm inside the cabin, full of hope for the next day. The following morning, he made himself the rest of the cocoa with sugar and powdered milk and drank it before quickly stuffing his pockets with raisins and heading out for what he thought would be his last day in the wild. He hiked all day, and as the sun started to go down in the afternoon, he pushed on, sure that there would be a town at any moment. He pushed on until around midnight with no signs of anything.

Somewhere, his friends were celebrating the new year, beginning 1944, and he was in the middle of nowhere trying to survive. And he had to make a choice. To keep on going in the middle of the night and hope for a town, or turn around. He decided after an entire day of travel to turn around and go back to the cabin. In total, he spent 30 hours straight of walking from when he started in the morning to when he finally returned to the captain. Wow. I've never hiked for 30 hours straight.

I was just thinking like it takes about 30 hours to drive from where I am in Colorado back to my home at the East Coast. And you're driving. And I'm driving. No walking. Yeah, right. Exactly. It's so much. And no like breaks or anything, but he needed shelter and he had to get back.

And this was devastating, both mentally and physically, and it wore him out so much that he didn't leave the cabin or move for another 48 hours. Finally, his hunger motivated him to get up, and he realized that he had never looked under the second tarp that also had a box inside of it under the tent. And here, he found what would truly save his life. Underneath the tarp was two boxes labeled Phil Borrell Woodchipper, Alaska. Inside the first one was 25 pounds of flour. 30 pounds of rice and another 30 pounds of dried beef and beans. The second box he found a bearskin, a wool blanket, two pairs of overalls, three pairs of wool socks, two pairs of mucklock boots.

These are soft hide boots that were originally designed and worn by Inuit peoples in the Arctic to stay warm. He also found snowshoes, a 22 caliber rifle with ammunition, candles, and more food. He found tea, dried eggs, powdered soup mix, dried onions, sugar, and another can of cocoa. And lastly, for his hands, he found mittens made of moose hide. So he essentially came across the biggest treasure you could find. I was going to say the ultimate jackpot in this situation. Yeah. Like, I should have left a week ago. I could have been eating this whole time. But to find that is just like, oh my God, thank you. Yeah, whatever.

Someone's looking out. Someone's looking out for you. Lieutenant Crane spent the next few weeks in the cabin recovering from his frostbite and starvation. He made himself food, kept a fire stoked, and wrapped himself up in bare skin. He kept his hands and his mittens, and they gradually regained color and feeling. He slept 18 hours a day, and slowly he could feel all that weight he had lost was beginning to return. He also began hunting tarmigan, a mellow-sized grouse, which he had found their feeding areas and was having a lot of success shooting them. It wasn't until January 21st that he headed out again, but this time he didn't have plans to stray far from the cabin.

He just wanted to get his bearings on the landscape around him. He found a very simple map inside the cabin that indicated he was on a settlement known as Woodchopper Creek. It was once a booming gold mining town in the early 1900s, which had dwindled in recent years but was still in operation. The map didn't indicate elevation or type of terrain or show a scale of how far away it was, but it was a promising indication that people weren't all that far away. The first day out was unsuccessful, but the second day he found more signs of people. About five miles down the river, he found another log shelter. This one wasn't full of provisions, but it did have a sleeping bag and an old canoe.

The canoe's body was weathered and ruined, but the structure was sound, and he thought that if he was still there by spring, he could possibly repair it and use it to paddle downstream. He also found a third cabin, but it was dilapidated, still a sign of people, though. He returned to the cabin with a newfound hope that he was going to make it out. He didn't have enough provisions to last the entire winter. He didn't have enough food or enough ammo, so he needed to make a decision. The weeks of food, rest, and warmth had healed him significantly, but he was having a hard time wanting to leave the safety of the cabin to go back out into the wilderness.

But he knew by now his family would think he was dead, and he also felt a guilt that he was missing out on his war duties that he had. He also knew that he really didn't have enough provisions to survive. In order to leave, though, he needed to be able to carry provisions with him for the journey. He didn't know if it would take days or weeks. weeks before he found someone. So he gathered together supplies from around the cabin, wooden boards, a wash tub, and built a sled. He fastened the rope into a harness. He would be able to wear around his chest to drag the sled behind him. I feel like it's important to like re-mentioned that he was an

engineer and has an engineering degree. Yeah, I was going to say that's very innovative, but helpful. A lot of the things he does. Helpful. It's just like he has he doesn't have a ton of outdoor experience, but he has a lot of experience of creating and utilizing material. His motivation to leave withered when heavy snowstorms came to the area. The deep cold, low visibility, winds, and heavy snowfall kept him comfortable for a few more weeks. It wasn't until February 10, 1944, when he regained motivation to leave. There had been several days that the temperatures had increased by a few degrees, and it was enough for the river ice to start breaking. While it was far too early for the weather to consistently stay warm, it was enough of an alarm to make Lieutenant Crane want to leave.

If the weather warmed enough for the ice to not be safe to travel on, he would be stuck at the cabin until spring. But spring would bring snow melt and fast-moving water, which could also keep him stuck. He had to go while the river ice was still capable of being traveled on top of. So he packed it up with everything he could. Flower, beans, cans of dried eggs, frying pans, soup pots, the tent canvas, a sleeping bag, his axe, and more. He laid his rifle at the top for easier access in case of hunting opportunities or an unwanted encounter with the last. his wildlife. It was much heavier than he anticipated, but he reasoned having the supplies would be worth lugging it along. He wanted to use the snow shoes to help him travel, but he couldn't figure out

the ties. And in frustration, he used the binds for rope and threw the rest in the sled for firewood. He brought the mucklucks to wear to walk in. On February 12th, he left the cabin. The sled he had built moved far less easily than he imagined. It would sink in the snow behind him, and his legs were burning after just a few minutes of walking. He had no other choice though and he tracked on, moving just one mile per hour across the river ice. He found it was now much more dangerous than before. The mini thaw that occurred reordered the ice sheets and there were pressure bumps and jumbled blocks of ice everywhere. It was much more difficult to see the thin, dangerous layers of ice. Where he felt comfortable traveling across the ice at night before, now wasn't an option.

Any snowfall also made it too dangerous, as it would cover the visible spots of thin ice. He could fall in and be sucked into the river, or his sled with everything he had to survive could be washed away. He was right to fear the conditions now. Shortly into his trip, the ice cracked and his foot fell through the ice. He reacted quickly, but the damage was done, and his boot was soaked while it was negative 20 degrees Fahrenheit outside. His heart raced, and he waited for the wet feeling to seep through his socks and then his foot to freeze. miraculously though the boots held strong and didn't let any water in he was safe but it was already a close call to what could have been the difference between him living and dying he continued walking and he walked on for two days straight lugging all his supplies through snow and ice then it happened the hair-raising sound of the splintering and the cracking below his feet just as the noise occurred the ice gave way underneath him and he made a hard splash into the water thoughts of being swept away under the ice and drowning flashed through his mind, but he wasn't pulled under the ice. His rope harness was tugging tightly

at his body, and he looked up to see that the sled, he had hated dragging that entire way, had refused to budge in his fall. It caught him and kept him afloat. He was then able to use the surrounding ice to hoist himself up and out of the water. His next moves needed to happen quickly. As soon as the air touched the wet parts of his body, a film of ice formed. He could feel the water coming into his boots and through all the layers of the clothing he was wearing. He was shivering uncontrollably, and he knew it was only a matter of moments before hypothermia set in. His only saving grace was that his head was still dry. With all his might, he ran with the sled towards the shore. He grabbed his matches, and luckily for him, there was dry needles and sticks nearby. He was shaking so

much he could barely light the match, but he managed to get a fire started. He strung a rope, tree to tree and then put the tent canvas on top, creating a shelter that was almost on top of the fire. He ripped his clothes off and laid them out close to the fire. He was losing body heat, but cowered his knees to his chest next to the flames and waded. Slowly, his shivering faded. It was negative 30 degrees outside. I'm cold just thinking about it. I know it's midsummer and I'm like, let's do. A freezing cold story. And I just can't imagine being, I know it's the right thing to do to take all your wet clothes off, but like, just imagine you have to take your clothes off in negative 30 degree wet.

I know. I know. God. It's just like, ah, so bad. When his clothing was mostly dry, he put them back on and huddled into a sleeping bag for the night. He continued on the following morning, walking for days, which then turned into over a week, when he stumbled upon another deserted cabin. This one looked like it had been years since anyone had been there, and other animals had

clearly rated the food that was there. Miraculously, though, there was still a single can of vegetables and a tin of sausage that Lieutenant Crane scarfed down. On February 16th, 1914, Lieutenant Crane's family finally received a second telegram detailing more information about his disappearance. It detailed the mission for that day. The last radio contact and the last time the plane was seen. It stated that the craft and the missing members were not found. It also apologize for their failure to provide more information sooner and promise to update them better. For Lieutenant Crane, his strand of luck, finding the vegetables and sausage before, was short-lived. When he ventured out again to continue his trek, he found himself in white-out conditions

in the middle of a blizzard. The conditions were so bad he couldn't see more than a foot in front of him and could hardly tell the direction he was walking in. The howling of the winds also made hearing anything else impossible. As he moved forward, he felt something pulling him back. At first he thought his sled was stuck, but the pulling on his chest and shoulders continued when he stopped. He turned around to see that the ice had given way and his sled was sinking into the river. He pulled back as hard as he could, but his shoes were slipping on the ice and pulling him into. He could have taken the ropes off of him and let it fall, but that would mean losing everything that was keeping him alive. He pulled harder. More ice gave way, and now he had sunken a couple inches into the water, but still had some ice beneath him.

He managed to get one of his legs out of the hole he was in and onto stronger ice. He crawled and pulled until his second leg was out as well. It was working and the sled rose a little bit, and then more, and then he had it back on the ice. Again, he felt the cold of the water seeping in, and just as he did before, he rushed to the shore and started a fire, repeating the same steps he had done before, and he managed to, to warm himself back up. And as if someone was out there watching for him, there was no damage to his supplies or his sled. Everything was intact, just a little wet, and ice covered, but he didn't lose a single thing. Another stroke of luck. Stoke a luck. I mean, a lot of this is all just down to what he found and just getting lucky. Yeah. I mean, one could argue he was unlucky to be in that situation. For sure. To begin with. But so far, I mean, this is stuff that's kind of unheard of.

when it comes to a lot of survival stories, as far as finding that amount of stuff and being able to properly utilize things and make the right choices and things like that. Yeah, just that cabin alone. I mean, he just lived in a cabin basically at the middle of Alaska with lots of food and fire for weeks at one point. When he was dry enough, he returned back to the shelter

where he had found the canned food. He counted his supplies, realizing he had about enough left to survive another month, the way he was going, and he prepared to head out again in the morning. He made a sack of pancakes and put them in his pocket for the road and left first thing the next day. I think pocket pancakes should be a thing also. Yeah. Personally. Let's do it. I mean, no one's stopping you. That's true. No one's stopping me from having my own pocket pancakes. I feel like it would be a very Vermont thing, especially if I whipped out some maple syrup. Of course. Yeah. Like, ah, yeah, I'm ready for a snack.

And I just pull out my maple syrup tin and my homemade pancakes and just watch everyone's reactions around you. Yeah. Like at the top of a hiking trail, just pull a smush pancake out of my pocket. I mean, I feel like that's like the most acceptable place to do it. True. You got to pick somewhere. Hey, guys, do anyone want a pancake? I know, it's like, that's too far.

You can enjoy it. Versus doing it like in a Walmart or something. Yeah, like you got to go somewhere else. That's a little peculiar. Yeah. Well, he had his own pocket pancakes for the road. and he was covering a lot of ground now. And by this time he's been out here for a while, I mean it's February,

and he had a lot more daylight than when he started. Days were lasting 11 hours, which allowed him to travel for much longer. After several more days, he found the first real sign of people who had been there recently. It had been 80 days since the crash. Just after sunset, with not much light left, he saw sled tracks. They weren't fresh, and parts were covered in snow, but they were clearly recent. There wasn't enough daylight left to explore them more, but he made camp that night with a new sense of hope, and as soon as the sun rose, he set off to follow them. His first thoughts were that they were from sled dogs.

He didn't see their pop prints in the snow, and the sleds would have covered them. He followed them for over two hours along the river. Then the tracks took a sharp turn and threw some rocks, and there, on the other side, was a cabin. Another cabin. Another cabin. And from afar, this cabin looked similar to the other. other ones. It looked kind of dilapidated. It looked abandoned. So he's like, I'm not going to get my hopes up. This is probably just the same as all the other cabins. But let's go check this out. And as he's

walking there, he sees paw prints in the snow. And to him, when he first sees them, he's like, oh, these are probably wolf paw prints. Like I should be on the lookout, see if there's any wildlife around. But then, the most glorious and recognizable sound cut through the air. And he heard dogs barking. Not wolves. He heard someone's pet. Still, he moved cautiously as he moved forward. When he approached, he saw a clothesline filled with cloth diapers and a checkered tablecloth hanging. He yelled asking if anyone was there. And for the first time, someone responded. He had arrived at Albert and Nina Ames trapping and fishing cabin. Nina was part of the Athabascan clan and Albert came from South Dakota. They met while he was working as a horsepacker in the region, and they fell in love

and built a homestead, mostly living off the land here. Lieutenant Crane introduced himself and explained who he was. When he told them he had been in the woods since December 21st, they were shocked and informed him that it was March 10th. They welcomed him inside and offered him food and coffee while he detailed his story of his survival. He told Albert he had found Phil Barrel's cabin, because remember that box said his name on it. Yeah. A man that it turns out, Albert knew very well. He also said that Phil's cabin was the last storage cache on the river, and he hadn't been there in years.

He also said that if he hadn't found it, he most likely never would have survived. He also informed him that he was on the Charlie River about a mile away from the Yukon River. Albert was so impressed at how healthy he looked. He even joked that people would have a hard time believing his story because of it. Oh. Like, are you sure? Yeah. It's like, well, you look pretty good.

Nina took photos of both Albert and Lieutenant Crane together, as she thought that this was a moment that needed to be documented. She then offered to cut Lieutenant Crane's hair because it was a little long and wild, and she was like, here, let me cut your hair. You kind of look crazy. And he was like, yes, please, thank you. Lieutenant Crane's journey wasn't over yet. They were still in the remote wilderness of Alaska

and had no way to radio into anyone of his arrival. The only way out was via Bush, plane and there were two scheduled to arrive, a male plane and one picking up a pregnant woman in the region, but they didn't know when they would be there. They just knew it was going to be soon. And the only way to get to the planes was by sled dog, because where the planes came were still pretty far away from the cabin. It took him two days to get out of there, but on the way, he met the owner of the cabin, Phil Barrel, and they shared a bottle of rum together while Lieutenant Crane thanked him. The plane he boarded was headed directly to Ladfield and the pilot radioed to base saying they would be very

interested in the passenger that he had on board. When he explained who he had, they responded over saying that there was a lot of people there waiting to see him. When they landed, they were on the same runway that he had taken off from before the crash. There was an ambulance, car, and a group of airmen waiting for him. He was greeted by an array of questions, but he first wanted to know if there were any news of his comrades. He found out that there had not been. He discovered that they had not even found the crash site. The second thing he did was call his parents and let him know that he was okay. News of his returns hit headlines around the nation and gave hope to the family and loved ones of other crew members that they might return as well. Seven months after his return in October

November 1944, Lieutenant Crane led a recovery team to the crash site where they found the remains of two other crew members, Lieutenant James Sibbert and Sergeant Ralph Wenz. They were unable to find two other missing men, both second Lieutenant Harold Hoskin or Master Sergeant Richard Pompeo. Closure for the family of Lieutenant Hoskin didn't come until 2006 when a team from the joint prisoner of war and missing inaction accounting command traveled to the site at the request of the Park Service. While they were there, they found bone fragments that later came back as Hoskins. Following that, he was given a memorial and a burial at Arlington Cemetery. The remains of Sergeant Richard Pompeo have yet to be found, but it has been confirmed that it was him that Lieutenant Crane

saw parachute from the crash. What happened afterwards is not known. The crash site is still there today and now belongs to the National Park Service with the Yukon-Charlie National Preserve. And that is my story. Oh my goodness. What a wild one. Honestly, I mean, it's like it has everything that you really love, World War II and survival and a sort of happy ending, of course. I know for some of those individuals, it was not, but for our main man there, definitely. And it's just, I know he said that he kind of won the jackpot a little bit, but like there's still something to be said about mental fortitude in that because you could. have all the supplies in the world, but to have to make the decision to move forward in uncomfortable spaces and not just like stay put or, you know, like I just always wonder if something like that was to happen to me, what direction would I? I feel like any direction I chose would be the wrong one. Like if you were to look at a map, like an aerial view map, you'd just see me like going off into the complete wrong direction. That's the worst choice. Right. Out of all the choices, that one was bad.

So I don't know. It's just like that's why survival stories are just so crazy to me because I know that my chances would not be great. Yeah. I think that I have almost zero chance of surviving just because I had a kidney transplant and I have to take rejection medication and stuff. I think like, I mean, I think I could survive a week. I think I could survive a week. But I think I would end up in the hospital and kidney failure still after that. You know. I think the odds of me surviving alone in the wilderness are very. Well, let's keep you tucked in to where you are right now. I don't even think I'm a candidate for the whole survival 81 days because I couldn't have made 81 days. No way I would have. Just because of the way your bod is. Yeah.

I would have gone into kidney failure and kick the bucket. But it's so interesting to see people's, like, even though he did. hit the jackpot. There were also so many things he did that made him survive. I mean, the first night, having those matches on him and having his dad's letter to start that fire initially is what saved his life the first night. And then he was able to keep a fire going. And I mean, he was out here in negative degree temperatures surviving with very little. There were just so many things that he had to do to survive, things that were really lucky. And I mean, even he walked so far for so much. And I mean, long. Yeah. Just like the physical aspect of it too. It's just it's a crazy story. Yeah, well,

thank you for sharing it and recommending the book, obviously. Yeah. As a reminder for people, it's called 81 Days Below Zero by Brian Murphy. And I highly suggest reading it because even though I went into his portion of the story, there's a lot of, they tell the search side in the book. Yeah. And they also go a lot into World War II. history, which if that's something you're interested. I mean, there's just a lot, as with any book that we ever cover, there's so much more information in the book than I've presented today. But yeah, great. Well, thank you. And thanks everyone for tuning in. We'll see you next week. Yeah. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch your back. Bye, everyone. Bye.

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