Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-03-03
FORESTS HAMPER
K|DNAPER SEARCH
Lndbergh's Craving for Soil
tude Works Against Efforts
to Recover Baby.
by a staff Correspondent Of The Star.

Gt d ObdA OoiICopOuAchL Va Ahc OSnAs
HOPEwELL, N. j., March 3.-The
craving Of Col. Charles A. Lindbergh for
solitude and escape from the crowds
that have made his life a public show
for the past four years is the factor
that is making most difficult the search
for the daring criminals who kidnapped
his baby
When the Lone Eagle" sought an
aerie in the New Jersey hills, where
he might find haven from the prying
world, he succeeded better than he
realized. The home he has built
among the rocks and forests is as wild
and inaccessible as the nest of any
eagle.
His home is surrounded on three
sides by dense forests, the trees of
which rise from a bewildering rubble
of boulders ranging from the size of q
coconut to that of q house. It In q
tangled. wild and impenetrable area of
hills and valleys and it affords in
Vulnerable hiding places for desperate
man.
Believe They Are Nearby.
Lindbergh's fellow pilots, who are
patrolling the air above his wilderness
home, believe the kidnapers have not
escaped from the immediate vicinity
of the house. but are hiding in the fast
nesses of the hills which are Lind
bergh's" protection against his inquisi-
tive fellow beings.
The jumbled rocks and tangled for
estS of the Sourland Mountains, on the
highest point of which Lindbergh built
his home, are historic as q sanctuary
III fOr No htiI1fQd IF &c
related that one of the signers Of the
Declaration of Independence, fleeing
from British dragons at Trenton,
escaped into these same wooded hills
and there holed up like fox until his
pursuers gave up in disgust and left
him to his eaSy-won freedom.
Commercial and military pilots who
have gathered at the scattered airports
in the Sourland country have been in
structed to watch for the CLEAN Of q
campfire or a tell-tale wisp Of smoke
which may betray the hiding place Of
the kidnapers, in case they are still
lurking there.
Whole Region Aroused.
The kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby
has aroused this rural countryside as
has nothing else in the memory Of the
Oldest farmers.
The daily pursuits of life virtually
have come to standstill in the Sour
lands The able bodied men and boys
for miles around are taking part in the
search The town Of Hopewell, near
est community to the Lindbergh home
has taken on the aspect of q little
county seat on court day.
The town is overrun with newspaper
men. police and photographers. who
set h drt oy.fa
here. The farmers engaged in the
search and their woman folk come to
Hopewell for news Of the search and
gather In buzzing knots in the streets.
Most Of the airplanes engaged in
the search are operating from the
Newark and Trenton airports. though
a few are based temporarily at the
Princeton Airport, about 10 miles from
the Lndbergh home. It was from this
field that a tri-motored Ludington Line
transport plane, ordered out from the
National Capital, made its survey night
yesterday afternoon.
with Washington and New York
newspaper men and photographers
aboard, the plane. piloted by Fred
Davis, took of early In the afternoon
to fly over the Lindbergh home and its
rugged surroundings.
Primitive Landscape.
Taking off into the amazingly clear,
crisp air of perfect March afternoon,
Davis pointed the nose to the westward,
where the low but dominating ridges
of Sourland rose against the pale blue
sky. The landscape streaming below
grew amazingly primitive, considering
the proximity Of New York, Philadel-
phia and the teeming metropolitan
areas Of New Jersey. 49,. .-s
Scattered farmhouses stood in the
valleys, and on the ridges were homes
OF wealthy metropolites, as aloof and
remote as ancient baronial fortresses.
Most lonely and remote of. them all
was that Of the Lindberghs. The farm
lands had given way almost entirely To
forests and rocks. The nearest human
habitation was a half mile or more from
the Lindbergh house and within an
area of several miles there were less
than half dozen scattered farm
houses.
Rough, muddy, rutted roads were the
only arteries of travel near the home
though Lindbergh has had stretch OF
a half mile or so of the road leading
up to his home graveled. From the air
the stretch appeared to be badly cut
up and the cars travelling there seemed
to have difficult going
Curious Autoists Stopped.
Outside the entrance to the Lind
bergh grounds, police were stopping
cars OF the idly curious and they were
lined up along narrow country trails
which probably see few vehicles in
normal times.
A score OF cars had climbed the hill
and were clustered in the walled court
yard in front of the white brick home
of the Lindberghs. Clusters Of gray
uniformed State policemen. newspaper
men and State and county officials
gazed up as the plane droned over
head. Their attention was attracted
probably simply because it was a tri-
motored ship and the planes which had
been circling around all morning were
smaller. single motored ships. 1t die
not seem to be a happy crowd. NJ
one waved. though the plane roarec
by very low so the photographers might
shoot" out through the open doorway
Of the plane. the door having been re-
moved for the purpose.
Having completed his mission. Davis
few his passengers back TO Newark
little more than a quarter hour away
and the Washington observers wer'
flown back home last night on th'