Ask a local resident in Eastern Washington about Mt. Spokane and they will assume you are talking about its skiing slopes, hiking trails or campgrounds. Ask about what else it might be famous for you will most likely draw blanks but a hint of its notoriety can be found in the name of one of its ski trails, B-29. In fact Mt. Spokane State Park is home to a cluster of plane crashes including one that brought national attention due to the number of fatalities.

The accident the ski trail is named after occurred on November 13, 1947 at approximately 9:45 p.m. when a B-29 strategic bomber on a routine training flight out of Spokane Army Airfield (now Fairchild Air Force Base) crashed into Mt. Spokane near the Bald Knob area. Out of its seven man crew only two would survive the crash, Sergeants Marshall Fine and Truman Haley. The remote location, the severe damage to flight instruments, and no surviving pilots left investigators to determine the crash was a result of pilot error.

On September 10, 1962 while turning in for a final landing approach to Fairchild Air Force Base a KC-135 Stratotanker disappeared from radar while over Mt. Spokane State Park. This plane was from Ellsworth Air Force base near Rapid City, South Dakota and had in addition to its regular crew carried thirty-eight airmen, one civilian and one soldier. The airmen were temporarily transferred to Fairchild while Ellsworth was undergoing runway repairs. The crash site was found at 4 p.m. on the northeast side of the summit of Mt. Kit Carson which is located southwest of Mt. Spokane. With forty-four fatalities, this crash remains Spokane County’s worst aviation incident and was the worst accident for a Boeing C-135 at the time. Air Force investigators concluded that it was the result of a navigational error combined with adverse flying conditions. The pilot, due to inclement weather, was flying on instruments and failed to level off at the correct altitude while descending for a final landing approach. They flew straight into the mountain side.

The last big crash to occur at Mt. Spokane happened on January 19, 1967 with the same type of aircraft and under similar conditions. A KC-135 out of Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii with nine passengers and four crew disappeared from radio and radar contact around 6:00 p.m. while on final landing approach over Mt. Spokane State Park. The crash site was found the next day near the top of Linder Ridge with no survivors. The reasons for the crash remain a mystery since the Air Force stated that the cause would be classified, and the information withheld from the public. However the Air Force also recommended changes to particular instrument procedures to prevent further accidents of this type. The 1967 KC-135 accident is the last major crash to occur at Mt. Spokane State Park with roughly sixty people in total having perished in airplane accidents that have occurred in the state park.

The common theme tying these accidents together is that they all occurred when visibility was poor, forcing the pilots to rely on instruments. In addition, a common route for aircraft making a landing in airfields in Spokane county overfly the Mt. Spokane area during their final descent to a landing approach. Errors in navigation, poor visibility and improper altitude is a fatal combination during a planes landing descent. Advances in air traffic control, flight instruments and procedures have made these accidents less common than they used to be in the past, painful lessons purchased though lives lost from these types of accidents.

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This small farming community is called Edwall, so named for the Swedish immigrant brothers Eric and Peter Edwall who initially homesteaded the site in the 1870s. The Edwalls decided to settle in this area after noticing the abundant water supply and fertile soil as they drove cattle from Spokane Falls to Moses Lake while working for Ben Snipe, a prominent cattle rancher in the region. They bought adjoining 160 acre plots, Eric married Anna Westerburg in 1883 but the union lasted only until 1890 when Eric Edwall died, leaving his widow childless. Peter Edwall inherited his brothers plot, married his widow and together they adopted a son, Axel Peterson.

The town itself came into being when the Great Northern Railroad in 1892 announced plans to build a rail route through Eastern Washington, Peter offered the rail line free right of way through Eric’s corner. The Railway accepted his offer and would later donate a school house to the small town as a sign of appreciation. The railroad began building towards Spokane in 1896 which instantly created a boomtown out of Edwall. At its height the population of Edwall numbered 300 in 1905 with many stores, a creamery, and a butcher’s shop. A high school was built in 1909, first out of wood and then out of brick after a fire destroyed the original school only a few years after it was completed. An artesian water vein was discovered in 1911; the term artesian refers to water confined under ground having enough positive pressure to flow freely up to the surface when tapped unlike regular wells that have to use pumps to bring water to the surface. Edwall was one of only two towns in Big Bend country to have artesian water and a large number of wells were drilled.

Two forces caused the decline of Edwall. The first was the appearance of automobiles which allowed farmers to travel quickly and easily to larger cities to do their shopping. The second was a serial arsonist who from 1915 to about 1930 would burn down businesses and homes randomly at night in roughly two month intervals. He was later caught and sent to the Medical Lake sanitarium but the damage was done. In 1900 there were 31 places of businesses in Edwall which had dwindled by 1920. After the fires in the early 1920s buildings were not replaced or needed due to cars, better communication and transportation facilities led to a steady decline of Edwall's population. In 1957 Edwall's High School closed due to a lack of pupils and so Edwall students attended Reardan, Sprague and Davenport schools. Currently Edwall is a part of the Reardan-Edwall School District. The former Edwall School is now the Christian Heritage School, a private Christian non-denominational school. Edwall was a bustling boom town that has quietly faded into a sleepy farming community of around 600 residents.

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