March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

White Bird search becoming an annual Down East ritual> Contributors sought;

MACHIAS — The 18th expedition of Project Midnight Ghost, a continuing search for a French biplane that may have crashed in the forest near Machias in 1927, will be resumed April 16 by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery.

The expedition’s headquarters, according to Richard Gillespie, TIGHAR’s executive director, will be at Graham’s Restaurant from April 16 to May 16. Participation in the search is open to all of the group’s members. Each participant is required to make a contribution of $100 toward the general cost of the expedition. Each searcher will be responsible for transportation to and from Machias, to and from the search area, and for accommodations and meal expenses.

The terrain in the search area, hilly woodland dotted by rocks, offers a challenge to the average volunteer searcher. “Experience has shown that four days is a practical minimum for participation, while one week is about as much as the average volunteer can take before his or her body (or mind) gives out,” said Gillespie.

In the March edition of the group’s official publication, TIGHAR TRACKS, Gillespie issued written instructions to anyone interested in joining the group. His invitation to would-be members of TIGHAR included the advisory, “The search effort can efficiently use only about six volunteers at any one time, so early coordination with TIGHAR headquarters is essential.” The group’s world headquarters is in Wilmington, Dela., telephone 302-994-4410.

“Spring comes late to Washington County, Maine. When most of us are enjoying the blooming of dogwood and azaleas, Down Easters are watching the ice finally leave the lakes and the last of the winter snows shrink in the shadow of the wooded hills,” Gillespie said.

Gillespie indicated that he knew full well that the natives along the shores of Machias River hold some strong opinions concerning the mental state of those who have been scratching and crawling through the hilly country north of Machias in search of the White Bird that flew from France toward Maine more than 60 years ago.

Acknowledging the Down East public’s opinions toward the expeditions, he wrote, “In late April the loons return — not just the feathered variety but for the past five years, another kind known locally as `those people from away looking for that French airplane.”‘

Gillespie hinted that the search might be drawing to a close. He said that 17 expeditions had made the search for l’Oiseau Blanc (White Bird) so much a fixture of the local scene that “the thrill of nearing the long sought resolution of the mystery is tempered by a paradoxical sadness that soon it may all be over.”

“But before Project Midnight Ghost becomes a matter of monuments and reunions, there must be more hard logic and hard work, more cold searchers swinging cold steel (axes), and more cold, hard cash to fund the effort.”

Searchers have uncovered little more than witnesses’ testimonies that have tended to pinpoint the crash site as being on the western or “back” side of the third and largest of the Round Lake Hills.

Should the searchers find conclusive evidence to nail down the impact point, a monument would be erected at the site. Even the natives around Machias are beginning to discuss the importance and significance of erecting a monument somewhere in Machias to honor the White Bird’s French aviators Nungesser and Coli, who were never found, or to honor the TIGHAR searchers.


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