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ALASKA GENWEB PROJECT

"All roads lead to Rome, but no roads lead to Nome"

HEARD A PLANE NORTH OF NOME
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Dog Team Driver Brings News That Sends Planes Off In New Locality
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NOME, Alaska, Jan. 3 – (AP) – A dog team driver today brought word to Nome that a plane was heard soaring over Pilgrim Springs, 75 miles north of here in a mountainous district, at midnight November 9, the day Pilot Carl Ben Eilison and mechanic Earl Borland disappeared while flying to the fur trading ship Nanuk, ice bound at North Cape, Siberia.
Arrangements probably will be made in the next four hours to send a plane to scout the area, if weather conditions permit, those in charge of the Eielson search said.
If the plane heard was Eielson’s it would indicate that he had turned back for Alaska after finding it impossible to land at North Cape and had been unable to effect a landing because of darkness and fog after reaching the Alaskan mainland.
The Pilgrim Springs district is an isolated section, with only a few inhabitants scattered many miles apart.
Heretofore Eielson was believed to have come down in the area of North Cape and all rescue operations have been aimed in that direction.
Publised in Huntsville, AL Newspaper 1/3/1930, Page 1 Column 2

SEARCHERS ARE MUCH WORRIED
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Loss Of Another Plane And 3 Men In Search For Missing Aviators
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FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Jan. 6, 1930 (AP) – With the loss of another plane and three men to add to their worries, the searchers for Carl Ben Eielson and Earl Borland, whose plane disappeared Nov. 9, today were held at a standstill by adverse fortune and fierce arctic storms.
Three powerful cabin planes, rushed here from Seattle and put at the disposal of arctic hardened Canadian pilots, were down one wrecked, one apparently lost and the other weather bound at Nualto, halfway point between here and home.
Eielson and Borland disappeared while flying from teller to fur trading ship Nanuk, frozen in the ice near North Cape.
Frank Dorbandt, Eielson’s flying companion, who a few days ago was withdrawn from the rescue work and ordered to take a rest, took off from Nome yesterday and flew 200 miles inland, hoping to sight Reid’s plane. Late last night from Solomon, 36 miles from here, where he was forced down, Dorbandt reported he had not sighted the overdue plane. 1/6/1930

FLIERS WAITING TO RESUME THEIR SEARCH

NOME, Alaska, Jan. 7 – (AP) – Fliers at five points in Alaska and Siberia were waiting today for favorable weather to allow them to continue their hunt for five missing low aviators.
The missing list, which for almost two months has contained the names of Carl Ben Eielson and Earl Borland, was increased by three when pilot Pat Reid and William Hughes and Jim Hutchinson, airplane mechanics dropped out of sight while participating in rescue operations.
Reid, Hughes and Hutchinson, in a cabin plane which left Fairbanks for Nome last Saturday, encountered a fog and became separated from a companion plane carrying three other fliers. One aerial scouting trip over a port of the 400 mile stretch between Nome and Fairbanks was made in the hope of sighting Reid’s plane but not trace of it was found.
Frank Dorbandt, who made the scouting flight, was held yesterday at Solomon, 34 miles west of here, by stormy weather.
Published in Huntsville, Alabama newspaper 1/7/1930, Page 1, Column 7

LOST AIRMEN SAFE AT UNALAKLEET

FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Jan. 14 (AP) – Three airmen who were forced down while flying from Fairbanks to Nome to participate in the hunt for Carl Ben Eielson and Earl Borlan were safe at Unalkaleet today after having been lost to the world for a week.
The fliers, Pilot Pat Reid, William Hughes and Jim Hutchinson, reached Unalakleet Saturday, reporting that a storm had forced them to land at the mount of the Ungalik River. Reid’s plane was slightly damaged, and temporary repairs were made almost at once, but the trio had to wait almost a week for an opportunity to take off for Unalakleet.
Other fliers were still awaiting favorable weather to resume rescue operations. Published in Huntsville, Alabama newspaper 1/14/1930, Page 4 Column 4

DISTRICT MAY BE CENTER OF SEARCH FOR FLIERS

NOME, Alaska, Jan. 15 (AP) – The possibility loomed here today that the Pilgrim Hot Springs district, about 75 miles northwest of Nome may become the center of activity in the search for the missing American aviators, Carl Ben Eielson and Earl Borland, who dropped from sight, Nov. 9 while attempting a rescue flight to the fur trading ship Nanuk, icebound at North Cape, Siberia.
Yesterday a letter was received at the Nanuk from B. Newell, formerly a trader for the company, which owns the vessel, which said his native wife had informed him that she had seen a plane flying toward the Nanuk near Cape Serdze, Siberia, between 12 and 1 o’clock in the afternoon and had heard a plane passing overhead the same day between 3 and 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Published January 15 1930, Huntsville, AL newspaper, Page 10, Column 4

RESCUE PILOTS GET ENCOURAGING NEWS

NOME, Alaska, Jan. 17 (AP) - A forecast of favorable flying conditions and an unverified report that Carl Ben Eielson and Earl Borland, missing aviators, were safe in the Anguema river district of Siberia, encouraged pilots of the Eielson-Borland rescue expeditions here today.
Although there was a tendency here to discount a Moscow report stating the Eielson’s plane was reported down in the Anguema river district, Alfred J. Lomen, manager of the Eielson-Borland rescue expedition here, wirelessed Joe Crosson, a rescue flier aboard the Nanuk, to make a flight over the area as soon as possible. Published January 17 1930, in Huntsville, AL newspaper, Page 1, Column 6

BIG AERIAL DRIVE INTO NORTH SIBERIA

NOME, Alaska, Jan. 18 (AP) – The big aerial drive for northern Siberia to search for Carl Ben Eielson and Earl Borland, missing American aviators is under way.
Eleven airplanes, manned by American, Russian and Canadian aviators, today were either on their way toward North Cape, Siberia, or poised at various places in Alaska or Siberia awaiting favorable weather for a massed attack on the mystery which has surrounded the fate of Eielson and Borland since they disappeared on the 500-mile flight form Teller, Alaska, to North Cape, November 9 last.
Two Fairchild cabin planes of the aviation corporation were ordered to fly from Nome to Teller to fuel for the final dash for North Cape where two American aviators, Joe Crossin and Harold Gilliam, are awaiting their arrival. Crossin has made some exploratory flights from North Cape in his small open cockpit plane, but has been handicapped by shortage of fuel and poor visibility. Gilliam’s plane was damaged in landing on the ice beside the trading vessel Nanuk and he has been making repairs so he can join the search.
Pilots of the Fairchild planes are Captain Pat Reid, Canadian aviator, and Ed Young, an Alaskan. Three Russian expeditions have been organized to aid in the quest. Published January 19 1930, in Huntsville, AL newspaper, Page 10 Column 2

NOME, Alaska, Jan. 31 (AP) – Encouraged at finding an aviator’s helmet and a pair of gloves, searchers digging in the snow and ice 90 miles southeast of North Cape, Siberia, for the bodies of Carl Ben Eielson and Earl Borland went on with their task today.
The helmet and gloves, unearthed from the ice strewn wreckage of the Eielson plane were identified yesterday as those used by Borland. No trace of the bodies was found but the searchers still were convinced that Eielson and Borland died in the wreckage last November 9.
The pane, wrecked while Eielson was attempting a flight to the fur trading ship Nanuk, icebound at North Cape was located Saturday by Pilots Joe Crosson and Harold Gilliam while on an aerial scouting trip from the Nanuk.
Severn men were dispatched to the scene of the wreck from the Nanuk to begin digging away the ice and hard packed snow which all but covered the wreck. Two more men were taken to the scene yesterday from the Russian supply ship Stavropol.
The theory was advanced here by persons familiar with the Siberian wastes that the bodies might never be recovered, as the country is over run by wolves and other carnivorous animals. Published January 31 1930, in Huntsville, AL newspaper, Page 1 Column 6

WILL WAIT FOR FLIER’S BODIES
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Russian Aviators Will Proceed to Wrecked Plane S. E. Of North Cape
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NOME, Alaska, Feb. 1 (AP) – Pilots of two Russian planes who arrived at North Cape Siberia to take more than a score of passengers off the ice bound ship Stavropol, have received new orders from Moscow to proceed to the wrecked American plane, 90 miles southeast of North Cape, and to remain there until the bodies of the fliers, Carl Ben Eielson and Earl Borland have been found.
All Russian dog teams in the vicinity have been commandeered and today a number were rushing supplies to a temporary camp at the scene of the wreck, where a number of men have been digging in ice and snow for a week in search of the bodies. Three American pilots and the Canadian flier Pat Reid, also have declared their intention of remaining in Siberia until the bodies o f the famous Alaskan aviator and his young mechanic are recovered.
Many wild animals roam in the region where the plane fell. This and the fact that accident occurred nearly three months ago led to the belief among old Alaskan residents that the bodies may never be found.
Eielson and Borland were flying to the American ship Nanuk, ice bound near Stavropol, to take passengers and furs to Alaska when they disappeared November 9. Published February 2 1930, in Huntsville, AL newspaper, Page 6, Column 8

SEARCHING FOR BODY OF MISSING RUSSIAN

NOME, Alaska, Feb. 6 (AP) – Despite frequent interruptions by severe Arctic storms search for the bodies of the American aviators, Carl Ben Eielson, and Earl Borland, today was going forward to the icy Siberian lagoon 90 miles southeast of North Cape where the wreckage of their plane was found January 25.
Pilot Joe Crossan, who with Pilot Gillam found the plane, radioed last night from the icebound fur trading ship Nanuk, at North Cape, that flights would be made to the wreck every other day to report on the progress of the crews clearings away ice and snow around the plane. Eielson and Borland were lost while flying to Nanuk last November 9. Published February 6 1930, in Huntsville, AL newspaper, Page 1, Column 6

HIGH SCHOOL GIRL ON FAR NORTH FLIGHT

NORTH CAPE, Siberia, Feb. 8 (AP) – (Via Point Barrow, Alaska by Radio and Cable) – Captain Pat Reid who took off from here yesterday with Miss Marion Swenson, Seattle high school girl, her father, Olaf Swenson, and Capt. Milovzorov as passengers, landed at Teller, Alaska, today after a flight of about four hours, Miss Swenson radioed from Teller. They took off from North Cape at 10 a.m.
The Swensons had been marooned for several months on the fur trading ship Nanuk, icebound at North Cape, while Captain Milovzorov had been icebound here aboard the Russian ship Stavropol, of which he is the master. Swenson is head of the Swenson fur trading company which owns the Nanuk.
Captain Reid flew one of the Fairchild planes sent north to engage in the search for Carl Ben Eielson and Earl Borland, who were lost Nov. 9 while attempting a flight to the Nanuk. The wreckage of their plane was found recently 90 miles southeast of North Cape, but their bodies have not been recovered. Published February 9 1930 in Huntsville, AL newspaper, Section 1, Page 1, Column 7

FATE OF EIELSON IS DEFINITELY DETERMINED

POINT BARROW, Alaska, Feb. 17, 1930 (AP) – The fate of Carl Ben Eielson, noted Arctic flier, and Earl Borland, his companion was definitely established today with the receipt of radio advices telling of the finding of Borland’s body buried in the snow at the spot near North Cape where their plane crashed Nov. 9.
Recovery of Borland’s body removed any doubts that the men had perished, although, death of the fliers had been accepted as a certainty following the finding the scattered wreckage of the plane.
Advices relayed from Pilot Harold Gillam, who had been at the scene of the wreckage, said Borland’s body was located last Thursday under five feet of snow. It lay near the engine which had been hurled 100 feet from the wrecked ship.
Indications were that Borland was killed instantly when the plane struck the Tundra and searchers said Eielson also must have been.