MEN ON HORSES START FOR SITE OF PLANE CRASH WITH 8 MEN IN ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK.

Fort Collins, Colo., Oct. 20. -- (AP) -- Headed by Sheriff Ray M. Borger, a score of men, including officers and soldiers of Lowry Field, left here at 5 a.m. today to reach the rugged 11,000 foot northeastern corner of Rocky Mountain National Park where an army Flying Fortress crashed and burned carrying eight fliers to their deaths.
The sheriff's party planned to enter the inaccessible area, four miles west of Signal mountain in the region of the Mummy range, by horseback from the John Derby ranch, just north of the crash along Pennock Creek.
Five bodies were discovered late yesterday by Vernon Spencer and Chris Hyatt, both ranchers, who entered the area following early reports that a plane had crashed and while Lowry Field scouting
planes flew overhead to sight the wreckage.
Authorities withheld names of the fliers, pending official notice to their families.
Lowry Field officials announced that eight men were on board the plane, a B-17 bomber, enroute to Denver from the Rapid City, S.D., army air base.
Besides the army air forces officers and soldiers, the sheriff's party today included Ranger Norman Griswold of the Roosevelt National Forest office here and Deputy County Coroner L. E. Butler of Loveland.
Barger said the plane's crash set a small forest fire in the timbered region. The fire was reported controlled, however, by a forest service crew led by Chief Ranger J. Barton Herschler from the Buckhorn ranger station several miles northeast of the crash.
Probably the only person to hear the bomber as it flew toward the fatal mountain slope was Mrs. Albert Chandler, living at the Rockwell ranch about seven miles north of Signal Mountain. She reported at 10:45 p.m. Monday that a plane flying extremely low passed over the ranch. Shortly afterward she heard a violent explosion, but neither she nor her husband were able to locate the fire from the explosion.
Early yesterday ranchers farther south spotted a smudge and Spencer and Hyatt began their trek to the scene.

Greeley Daily Tribune Colorado 1943-10-21

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8 FLIERS WHO DIED WEST OF FT. COLLINS FINALLY IDENTIFIED.

Rapid City, S.D., Oct. 22 -- (AP) -- Commanding officer of the Rapid City army air base said tonight that eight fliers are dead as the result of a heavy bomber crash in an isolated mountainous area near Fort Collins, Colo., Monday night.
Previously reported missing on a routine training flight from this base, bomber was identified by officers from Lowry Field.
Due to the rugged terrain and inaccessibility of the location, removal of the plane's occupants was considerably delayed.
The crash victims' names announced here are:
Second Lt. RICHARD N. CREAMER, Lorraine, Ohio.
Second Lt. JOSEPH R. ARNOLD, JR., Fresno, Calif.
Second Lt. WARREN M. DEAN, Seattle, Wash.
Staff Sgt. WILLIAM N. COOK, Fort Worth, Tex.
Sgt. ROBERT J. HOPKINS, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Sgt. PHILIP DODRIDGE, Kirk, Colo.
Sgt. CARL E. HAMRE, Montour, Pa.

Greeley Daily Tribune Colorado 1943-10-23
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!