Here’s a treat: some eye candy of DC-3 aircraft along with a bonus shot of a couple Clippers in Hong Kong sent to us today from Rick Freimuth, who says, “The first one is a slide my father took in 1948 of Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong. Look to the lower right and you can see two Clippers which could be Boeing or Martin Flying boats in the harbor.”
The rest of the photos are from a fire Rick was on in October 1979, the Norton Ridge Fire camp at Indian Creek Guard Station on the the Middle Fork of the Salmon. The small strip was so busy with the airshow they called it Indian Creek International Airport.
There were at least two USFS DC-3s, a couple of contracted Twin Otters, a Beaver, Cessnas, a couple of 212s, a 205 and a 206, an Aérospatiale Alouette III and a Lama! The DC-3s still had radial engines then, just after the fatal DC-3 crash in June 1979 in the Selway River, when a right engine fell off. Ten souls were lost in that incident.
Oddly enough a backpacker saw the engine fall and took a photo of the plane. Soon after that all USFS DC-3s for passenger use were grounded.
“The turbine engine installations followed soon after,” says Freimuth. “I was in one of the last non-jumper flights that summer. We flew from Challis, Idaho to SLC with a 20-person crew for a fire in the Uintas.”
The Indian Creek Guard Station fire camp was a staging area for the huge spike camp about 20 miles away on a ridge near the fire. The spike camp served about six crews. After a couple of days we had everything a typical main fire camp had — showers, tool sharpening area, an aid station. It was a very late-season fire for those days, and we got emergency demobed because of snow. I have shots of the camp from flying into it with cargo chutes hanging in the trees, chow line, camp hootches, and helo pics. I also have a shot of a 212 dropping a belly tank load of water into a portatank, which ultimately destroyed the tank. Crazy stuff in those days. There was also a woman on the fire who was a nationally ranked wrist wrestler. She was entered into the national event in Las Vegas and she was flown out to attend it. Go figure!
Camp crew gathering to unload the plane
De Havilland Twin Otter landing at Indian Creek. Look at all the red tape around bottom of the door!
THANK YOU RICK, for the great photos and the background on these aircraft. Much appreciated!
Wow, I was on the Norton Ridge Fire at Indian Ck. I was on the Lama helitack crew. When the DC-3 came in we were all in awe. It was a busy place. Looked for myself in the photos.
It was dang cold also.
You have any photos of that incident or others of that vintage, Linda? 🌻
Hi Kelly, I was at Indian Cr. GS during Norton Ridge with Linda and the rest of the Indianola Helitack Crew.
I have 2 photos of Indian Cr. airstrip from that fire and am wondering how to send them to you. Great article and it brought back many memories!
Yes, I remember that one quite well. Bathing in the Middle Fork was chilly to say the least, but refreshing. Frost on the sleeping bags in the morning was never my favorite experience though I remember fires where I had snow covering me when I woke up in the morning. I have 2 photos of Indian Cr. airstrip from that fire and am sending this same note to the author from both of us. Thanks for sharing!
Nice PJ! Who knew we would all be on this platform. That fire was an interesting one. Such a late season fire in the Idaho Primitive Area with so many air resources was atypical. I do remember many frosty mornings and then the evac from the spike because of the snowfall. I was on the last Twin Otter out of Indian Creek and flying to BFIC while a hotshot crew had to hike the ten or more miles out to the nearest road for pickup.
Hey Linda, That’s so crazy you were on the fire, especially on a Lama helitcak crew! Where was your duty station? I have helo photos from the Norton Ridge Fire as well. I’ll look through them.
All great images though, Thanks for posting them.
Nice shot of the Twotter, formerly owned by Sea-Airmotive in Anchorage, that paint scheme is as distinctive as a poke in the nose.
Those are neither Martins or Boeing’s in the first photo, both were long gone by 1948.
All 3 Martin 130s had crashed before then and none of the Boeing 314s were operating in the Pacific to Hong Kong. These are either Short Sandringhams or Solent 4s, both based on the WW 2 Sunderland. My bet’s on the Sandringham as they were operated from Australia vs the Solent 4 being run from New Zealand.
Nice clarification Bill, thank you.