If you were dropped in the middle of the wilderness, alone, could you survive? What if you had no tools, no food, and improper equipment? And what if that wilderness was the Alaska bush, and the setting was midwinter? Survival stories in harsh environments are fascinating, particularly when the odds are stacked against a positive outcome.
The story of Leon Crane was truly incredible, and it remained all but untold for decades. When the World War II-era B-24 plane crashed in the Charley River drainage in December 1943, and weeks of searching turned up no trace of the craft or its passengers, it was assumed that all were dead. And when young Leon Crane, city boy from Philadelphia turned military pilot, showed up at a remote trapper’s cabin on the Charley River nearly three months later, it was unbelievable.
Crane, fellow pilot Harold Hoskin (from Houlton, Maine), and three crew members were on a test flight out of Ladd Field near Fairbanks, Alaska when something went wrong. The electronics went haywire, one engine quit, and the plane was uncontrollable. After going way off course with no radio communications, it was apparent the plane was going down. Crane got his parachute on, opened the bomb bay, and bailed out of the plane, assuming others had done the same. In a fiery explosion, the plane crashed on a remote mountain side.
Leon Crane watched the blaze from a distance, hoping the others made it out. It was cold, and he was poorly equipped to deal with the conditions. With minimal winter clothing and no gloves, he began to freeze. But luck was on his side. With the matches he’d put in his pocket that morning and a letter from his father, Crane started a fire. He used his parachute as a blanket to keep warm. For days, Crane waited near the crash site. He called for the others, made large fires and SOS signals, and watched and listened for searchers. But nobody came. And after several days, it was apparent that nobody was coming. Crane would either starve to death, or try to walk out on his own.
Crane had landed near a fairly good sized river. He didn’t know exactly where he was, but suspected it might be the Charley, and determined the best course to civilization would be downstream. After days without food in subzero conditions, with only the parachute for shelter and a fire for warmth at night, things were looking bleak. And then, everything changed. Crane found a cabin.
Phil Berail, legendary gold miner, trapper and all around tough guy, and the only year-round resident of the mining camp at Woodchopper, Alaska, had built the cabin way up the Charley River as a base for his winter trapping operations. He hadn’t visited it in years, and now getting up in years, didn’t think he’d ever return to it. But to Crane’s unwitting delight, the place was stocked with a season’s worth of supplies, a rifle, and winter clothing. On the edge of starvation and drained of energy, this outpost cabin and its cache of food had literally saved Leon Crane’s life.
Crane didn’t realize how remote he was. After finding a cabin, he thought a town must be just around the next bend in the river. Or the next one. His wishful thinking led to a long trek downriver that nearly cost him his life once again. Finding no sign of human life, he returned to Berail’s cabin to rest and come up with a plan.
Weeks later, Crane decided to make the journey downriver, no matter long it took to find civilization. He gathered up food, rifle, and a handmade sled to tow supplies, and hiked out. Days later, he came upon the cabin of Albert Ames, a trapper on the Charley River. He was saved.
Months after going missing, the pilot who’d long been considered dead was at the home of Phil Berail, awaiting a plane that would return him to Ladd Field and his former life. To most, the story of Crane’s survival was beyond belief. Leon kind of just shrugged it off, though. Crane left the military a short time later and returned to Philadelphia. He raised a family and became a successful businessman. The plane crash and his time in the Alaska wilderness was something he rarely discussed, and he seemed to prefer keeping it that way.
John McPhee visited Crane after hearing the incredible story decades later, and recounted it briefly in his book, “Coming into the Country”. Today, more than 75 years after the events that took place that winter of 1943, the full story, background and details have been compiled into a book. “81 Days Below Zero”, by Brian Murphy with Toula Vlahou, tells the full story of Leon Crane’s survival in the Alaska bush, in one of the most unfavorable circumstances one could face. Could you or I do it? Not sure. But it’s pretty awesome to know that somebody did.
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