Marshall McClung
Ferd Colvin began his career with the U.S. Forest Service in 1928 on the Tellico Ranger District of the Cherokee National Forest, located in eastern Tennessee.
Colvin served as the lookout in the Hemlock Fire Tower near Eagle Gap until near his death on Dec. 26, 1945. His son Beecher Colvin – who was only 16 at the time – began serving as the lookout at Hemlock Tower and had a lengthy career with the U.S. Forest Service.
During his career at the Hemlock Fire Tower, Ferd likely reported numerous forest fires. On the night of April 8, 1945, he made an unusual discovery. As was the custom of those in fire towers, Ferd would scan the area for any sign of a fire.
All at once – where moments before there had been nothing – a fire was burning brightly in the vicinity of Whig Meadows in the edge of Tennessee below the North Carolina line. The fire was reported and soon, a crew was on their way. It took the fire crew around 45 minutes to reach the fire. Soon after starting control efforts on the fire, the men began finding pieces of metal and then charred body parts, and realized that there had been a plane crash.
A U.S. Army B-17 Flying Fortress was on a training flight from Keesler Field in Biloxi, Miss., with a crew of ten men aboard. As the plane approached Whig Meadows – elevation around 4,960 feet – the plane liked about 150 feet of clearing the heavily-forested area and began striking trees.
The force of the crash left a debris field covering about an acre. All of the engines were torn from the plane. One engine and a tire were found over ¼-mile from the rest of the wreckage. The U.S. Army dug a large pit with a dozer and buried most of the plane wreckage.
Marshall McClung is the historical columnist for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, mcclungs@email.com.