Hunting for the past
Mark Danielson’s curiosity has led him to a years-long passion for exploring the history of the area around him. Growing up in Othello, one of his first “hunts” for historical information led to him finding a fascination with aircraft crashes in the 1940s.
COURTESY PHOTO/MARK DANIELSON/BENJAMIN DANIELSON
Mark Danielson plotted all the information from 1944 U.S. Army Air Force plane crashes in North Central Washington he could find. His key states that blue markers indicate a P-39 crash, green indicates a P-38 crash, yellow indicates another aircraft as specified in the note and Army Air Force bases or fields are in red.
This photo shows the wreckage of a P-39Q which crashed near Wahatis Peak. The pilot, Robert M. Pickerall, was killed in the crash on July 31, 1944. According to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, the P-39Q cost about $46,000 at the time and had a maximum speed of 376 miles per hour and could fly up to 35,000 feet in elevation. It was manufactured by Bell Aircraft in the early 1940s. Engine placement behind the cockpit could lead to difficulties for inexperienced pilots.
Mark Danielson and his friend, Joe Hodgkins, explore a wagon road on Saddle Mountain when Danielson was a teen.
COLUMBIA BASIN — The curiosity Mark Danielson had as a child has never gone away. Instead, he has turned that curiosity into a years-long passion that has brought many answers but most likely many more questions.
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