Evening star., 1935-08-17
BODIES Of ROGERS,
POST START HOME
IN CROSSON PLANE
Noted Alaska Flyer Takes
Off From Point Barrow
for Fairbanks.
SNOWY LINEN WRAPS
TWO FAMOUS FIGURES
Mrs. Post Hurries From Oklahoma
to Seattle-Mrs. Rogers
Starts for California.
By the Associated Press.

OS lAlC hooONidNEu TlESS
POINT BARROW, Alaska, August
17-Wrapped in snow-white linen,
the bodies of Will Rogers and Wiley
Post started for home today in plane
piloted by Joe CroSson, veteran North
land pilot. CroSson took off for Fair
banks, five hours southwark across
the Endicott Mountains at 3 am.
Pacific standard time Is am. Eastern
standard time).
Carefully laid away in the cabin
were the bodies of the two interna-
tional figures, who were crushed to
death Thursday when their airplane
nosed over shortly after a takeoff
from Refuge Bay, Is miles south of
here
Fairbanks was the first stop en- route
to Seattle, where Mrs Post was hurry
ing from Maysville, Okla, the home
of Wiley's parents. The exact time
of arrival in Seattle was not an
nounced.
Eskimos Watch Takeoff.
A dozen white settlers and a crowd
of Eskimos gathered on the desolate
Arctic shore while the bodies were
laid in the ship.
Fifteen miles south. on the tundra
Of Point Barrow. other EskimoS SAL
vaged for their own use the scattered
fragments of Posts red monoplane, in
which the actor-humoriSt and the
famous flyer plunged to their deaths
in fog on their way here from Fair
banks.
Dr. Henry w Greist, surgeon at the
Presbyterian Mission Hospital, who
saw the Eskimos at work, said that
shortly there would be little left save
the torn tundra to mark the spot
where Rogers and Post died during
their pleasure jaunt" through Alaska.
Crosson Bade Friends Good-by.
Crosson. Posts Alaskan friend and
a naviator. too. and Robert Gleason,
radio operator, few over the Endi-
colt Mountains and through fog across
the tundra wastes yesterday to take
the bodies back to- civilization.
1t was Crosson, veteran of unnum-
bered Alaskan flights, who bade them
good-by at Fairbanks and warned
them against the hazards of the fog
at Point Barrow.
The broken remains Of Post and
Rogers lay in a warehouse behind
the Presbyterian Mission Hospital at
Barrow, on the ice-strewn Arctic
shore. after DR.. Greist. the mission
surgeon, and Charles Brewer, grizzled
King of the Arctic" prepared them
for the journey home In this same
warehouse last May the bodies of IA
Eskimo victims Of an influenza epi-
demic were laid out in plain board
collins.
Flying to Visit Brewer.
Brewer was the man whom Rogers.
said he was flying TO Barrow to visit
For 81 years Brewer has operated a
whaling station and trading post on
the lonely, northernmost tip of Alaska
The entire populations of Juneau.
capital of Alaska. where the aerial
vacationers spent night as guests of
Gov. Troy; of Dawson. Y. T.: of
Aklavik, on the Arctic delta of the
Mackenzie River: of Fairbanks and
of Anchorage had shouIdered Post and
Rogers around when they dropped in
on their casual tour of the North.
Nome. to the westward. Sorrowfully
Cancelled arrangements for a giant re-
ception. Rogers had said jocularly
during his flight toward Alaska that
he wanted to rope a reindeer" and
Nome citizens had the deer ready.
The terrific impact as Posts ship
fell just after take-off so mutilated
it that it appeared doubtful the exact
cause of rhe crash ever would be de-
termined.
Motors Misfire Blamed.
ESkimoS with whom Post talked
after landing to get directions to Point
Barrow said the ship lifted so or so
feet into the air and the 550-horse-
power motor misfired
The plane fell off on one wing, then
ploughed nose first into the tundra
A wing struck the ground and ripped
off, the pontoons tore into the earth,
and the heav" motor broke from its
supports and iammed back upon the
flyer and his companion.
An Eskimo. breathless from IS miles
of running across the tundra, brought
the first word of the wreck to Barrow.
Sergt Morgan flashed the word by
wireless to Col George E. Kumpe, in
charge of the Alaska telegraph system
headquarters, operated by the Signal
Corps, in Seattle.
The Signal Corps notified Mrs. Post.
in Ponca City. Okla, and the Rogers
family. in Showhegan, Me.
Will Rogers. Jr., Flies East.
The Rogers family was stunned.
Mrs Rogers said she would start for
California with her daughter Mary