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Missing 1950 Douglas C-54D
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 793
This is the fascinating tale of a vanished Douglas C-54D that disappeared en-route from Anchorage Alaska to Great Falls, Montana, on January 26th 1950.
70 years later and there's been no trace of the passengers or crew discovered.
Articles here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_Douglas_C-54D_disappearance and here http://www.ruudleeuw.com/search137.htm and here: https://www.warhistoryonline.com/cold-war/disappearance-of-a-usaf-c-54.html
Operation Mike still continues on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OperationMike/
The plane is believed to have crashed somewhere along the BC/Yukon border, although there are those that think it may have crashed further south (there are rumors that it may have crashed in the Cranbrook Forest district, or going over Crowsnest pass, although it seems unlikely that with the increase in population & forestry work there it would still be undiscovered.)
What is especially curious is the fact that intermittent SOS/distress calls were picked up for 2 weeks following the plane's disappearance, implying that it may have not met with a fiery end (as reported by one warden who reported hearing a "boom"), it may have landed relatively intact and the 44 occupants perished awaiting help. Cold weather, clouds and snow hampered search efforts and quite possibly the plane was entirely covered over and so went unspotted. Another is that it landed on a lake - and come spring sunk to the bottom with it's passengers. There are a few tales like this - try: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/baker-lake-bristol-freighter-underwater-discovery-1.4814719.
The original news clippings from the Victoria Times Colonist:
Tutankhamun and the Valley of the Kings - Otto Neubert
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 745
I'm enjoying this. Otto Neubert was an Archaeologist/Egyptologist who was with Howard Carter when he opened the Tomb of Tutankhamun.
He's good with his history - and, with almost 4,000 years of "civilized" history, (how many Pharaohs?) there's a lot to explore. And it rivals - surpasses - anything in the wildest Indiana Jones movie. Subterranean crypts filled with the bodies of hundreds of slaves murdered to protect the hiding place of the tombs, the vast necropolises for cats, crocodiles, herons, you name it, the culture of almost perpetual grave-robbing, the empire was cannibalizing it's dead shortly after they were hidden in the ground, and have been doing so for thousands of years...
I could go on. It's not a great book, but it captures something of the flavor of what Egypt once was, and the thrill of discovery that continues to this day...
Taber
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Other
- Hits: 686
& the daughter, overdue, is needing me to get her to Taber to do her driver's test. Cold day, windswept, grey and snowy, and Taber, all of a single story at it's highest point, every shop window blacked out against the relentless summer sun, wide streets that offer no shade, a tired thrift shop with nothing of value, killing an hour while she does her test, an hour in Taber is like a week anywhere else in the world, not a single independent coffee house, the hour runs slowly through the glass and it's time to leave...
I don't know if I've ever been so glad to get out a place before, ever.
Hammershoi
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Other
- Hits: 695
Rather like his work, brooding, atmospheric, and I admire him for generally not painting faces. The people - alien, distant, there's a tension in their action, in their turning from the painter. Brilliant.
Links: Wikipedia on Vilhelm Hammershoi & a BBC article
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