The Historical B-52 Crash Site - Visit Jackman Maine

The B-52 Memorial is a great day trip when visiting the Jackman Moose River Region.

A visit to the B-52 Memorial is a great day trip. This trip gives you the opportunity to drive on dirt roads, see wild life, do some easy hiking, and visit a historical site all in one adventure.

Historical Information

Only three crew members – all on the top flight deck – had the time and means to eject. The co-pilot, Maj. Robert J. Morrison parachuted from the bomber but was killed when he hit a tree. Navigator Capt. Gerald J. Adler is the only person ever to survive an ejection from an aircraft without the parachute opening. He landed upright in the snow in his ejection seat, fracturing three ribs and his skull. The third survivor was the pilot, Lt. Col. Dante E. Bulli, who spent the night dangling from a tree 30 feet above the ground in minus 29-degree temperatures.

The remnants of this crash lie at the end of a tree-lined road only fifteen minutes from the town of Greenville. Lily Bay Road on the southern shore of Moosehead Lake intersects with an easy-to-miss turnoff marked with a small sign that reads: Prong Pong Road. This unpaved path is rutted and rugged, but the breathtaking landscape is worth the bumpy, jarring eight-mile trek up Elephant Mountain. Along the way, you will be entertained.

At the site

As you travel deeper into the woods along a wide, smooth footpath, the enormity of the tragedy hits you: there are torn and shredded bits of metal in every direction, everywhere you look: on the leaf-strewn ground, tangled in the branches of trees, in and around and under the forest. There are areas where nature has reclaimed the site, where wreckage encircles new growths and pines grow out of unidentifiable pieces of aircraft.

Beside the stripped and broken-off fuselage, a black Monson slate memorial honors the survivors and those who lost their lives that day in January 1963. The sound of the wind moving through the slender pines is resonant and ethereal, and one feels that this is indeed sacred ground.

Information copied from by, https://visitmaine.com/thi…/hiking-climbing/b52-crash-site

How to get there

To get there, drive 48 miles to Greenville Maine, on Route 6/15. Take a left (North) at the blinking light in Greenville. Drive North 7.1 miles on the Lily Bay Road. Look for a dirt road on the right called the Prong Pond Road. Turn here, where you will see a yellow sign with an arrow marking the way to the B-52 site. Begin new millage. At 1.9 miles stay straight, passing a yellow B-52 sign. Then at 4 miles stay left. At 5.1 miles stay straight (or to the right), and at 5.4 miles you will have a great view of Elephant Mountain. Turn left at 5.9 miles, stay right at 7.4 miles. Then after a right you will reach the trail head at approximately 8 miles.

The crash site is easy to find thanks to small placards at every fork and junction. A sign at the entrance to the trail placed by the owner, Weyerhaeuser, asks visitors to treat the area respectfully and leave it intact. Drooping tree tendrils beckon you into the woods and the first fragments of debris lay only 20 steps deep. It is a heady, emotional place, not the least for being in the midst of a dense old pine forest.

Be advised, this is a historical site. It is against the law to take any items from this site. Carry out what you carry in. Fires are prohibited in this area. Pets are welcome, but please clean up after them. Thank you for doing your part in keeping our forests clean.