The Loon Lake B Twenty-Three Crash

Deep in the Payette National Forest lies the wreck of a bomber and one of the great survival stories of the war years. In January of nineteen forty-three, a B Twenty-Three Dragon bomber was returning from a training flight when it flew into a blinding snowstorm over the central Idaho mountains. Lost and low on fuel, the crew gambled on a landing on frozen Loon Lake.

Astonishingly, the crew survived with only minor injuries. Buried in waist-deep snow, they built a lean-to and rationed their food. After several days, three men set out on foot, struggling down the Secesh River to a guard station for help.

A mail pilot finally spotted the wreck, and a ski plane carried out the rest. The bomber still rests there today, remote and far from any road.