Rogers-Post Site
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Google Maps view
Google Maps view
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
On Aug. 15, 1935, humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post were flying from Fairbanks to Barrow (now Utqiaġvik) as part of what the Associated Press at the time called a "happy-go-lucky aerial tour of Alaska." They were planning this as a prelude to a trans-Siberian flight to Moscow. They encountered fog and low visibility in the area of Walakpa Bay and landed when they found a hole in the fog. They spent time with some Native Alaskans, who gave them directions for the short distance remaining to Barrow. When they took off again, they were only about 50 feet in the air when the engine failed. The airplane crashed into the lagoon and overturned. It was the first fatal air accident near Barrow.
Rogers was a world-renowned humorist, actor, author, pundit, and homespun philosopher. He was also an avid proponent of air travel. Post was a world-renowned aviator, and held two around-the-world aviation records. Both of them hailed from Oklahoma, and both of them were fond of Alaska. Two days before the crash, Rogers filed a story from Fairbanks. He said, "This Alaska is great country. If they can just keep from being taken over by the U.S. they got a great future." More seriously, he called Fairbanks "the greatest aviation-minded City in the world." Post had built the airplane they used during their tour earlier in 1935. As the National Register of Historic Places states, it was a "low-wing cantilever monoplane of wood and fabric construction using a 550 h.p., Pratt and Whitney Wasp Engine."
The first monument was built in 1938. The 15-foot monument was designed in Oklahoma by organizations from Oklahoma and Texas. The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Federal Bureau of Land Management also provided assistance. It was built on site using poured concrete and using local aggregate. The memorial marker was made from pink granite that was quarried near the Rogers homestead in Claremore, Oklahoma. Claremore-based stonecutter E.R. Bigelow carved the marker. The Masonic Lodge added added a bronze emblem to the memorial. In 1973, the memorial marker was replaced by a bronze marker. The Will Rogers Memorial Commission furnished the new marker. The old one had chipped as a result of frostbreak and souvenir hunters.
A second monument was built in 1953 by Jesse Stubbs. Stubbs claimed to be a childhood friend of Rogers. The monument he built memorializes not only Rogers and Post, but Alaskan veterans of World War II. The poured-concrete obelisk is 26 feet tall.
The Stubbs monument was relocated to Utqiaġvik in 2016 after its location was threatened by coastal erosion. So only the original monument remains on the site of the crash. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Sources
Rogers-Post Site, National Register of Historic Places. Accessed July 20th 2020. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/2e7da368-d9d5-43c2-8dcf-1f272506caf5.