A shortcut?

One of the many mysteries of the Flyin' Lion Saga is the route of Martin Jensen's flight path from San Diego to the crash site.  Obviously, no one will ever be able to prove Jensen's flight path beyond reasonable doubt.  Consequently, any commentary on the route will always fall into the realm of speculation.  And, therefore, in keeping with the Spirit of Speculation we have coined the phrase "Circumstantial Situational Speculation".

Many accounts of Jensen's flight path either state or speculate that he flew to Phoenix and thence up The Salt River to Roosevelt Lake and then turned left to follow Tonto Creek until crashing in Hells Gate. That is generally the most commonly accepted  and prevailing perspective regarding Jensen's flight path.

We believe a new perspective can be gleaned from an important eye witness account paired with ground truthing to formulate a reasonable "circumstantial situational speculation" that produces an entirely new flight path from San Diego to the crash site in Hells Gate.

Reporter Ralph A. Fisher Sr. interviewed prominent Payson resident William (Bill) Boardman.  Fisher wrote in a 1968 summary of that interview:

"In mid-afternoon the late William (Bill) Boardman, former merchant and postmaster of Payson, Arizona, was traveling south over the rugged Ox Bow will from Payson to Rye when he heard a roaring motor coming from the direction of the Matatzal Mountains lying to the west. Boardman killed the motor in the aged truck he was driving and coasted to a stop in a cloud of dust to watch the small plane that appeared to be lost and in trouble fighting to gain altitude over Tonto Basin.

"It was a small brightly colored monoplane, with some large lettering exposed along the glittering fuselage with what appeared to be a metal cage constructed in the forward portion of the fuselage directly behind where the pilot was seated. The plane was flying very low as it came out of the mountains and followed the old Bush Highway for a distance. It seemed that the pilot was looking for a route that would permit him to get over and above the majestic Mogollon Rim lying dead ahead in the east," stated Mr. Boardman as our interview got underway.

"I watched the pilot guide the heavy laden plane eastward again, then head low over the hills and tree tops towards Kohl's Ranch on the upper Tonto Creek, but still beneath the Rim. Then I lost sight of the small plane and the perfect hum of the single engine; and continued on my afternoon errand to Rye,  some 16 miles south of Payson," continued Bill Boardman.

 "By the way, I did note the time as being 2:00 PM on that sunny and somewhat warm afternoon of September 16,1927,".... "you can well understand my surprise when a few days later I was advised that a pilot had walked into the Booth cabin along the lower Tonto Creek at Gisela, close to Rye, following a crash-landing along Tonto Creek some four days earlier according to my informant."

To read the full interview see: https://en.calameo.com/read/006162086240e12861b2e

On February 24, 2020, we realized we could use our handheld GPS device to attempt to pin down where Boardman might have been on the Oxbow Hill Road.  The Oxbow Hill Road in 1927 was vastly different than it is in 2020.  So, naturally, there would be some "interpolation" involved.  As chance would have it, we used a spot that just so happened to be on the old road itself. We recorded a 57 second video showing the area there.  You can see it here: https://vimeo.com/394041501

There's no doubt based on Boardman's recollection of what he saw that the aircraft was flying from Boardman's right to Boardman's left.  If the plane would have been flying from Roosevelt Lake up The Tonto, it would have been too far out of sight for Boardman to see the details he reported from his encounter.

Using the circumstantial evidence presented in Boardman's interview combined with the situational on-the-ground perspective, we have prepared the maps below.

 The above map shows what we believe to be Jensen's flight path as he approach the Matazal Mountains.  we believe he flew through the Verde Valley, crossing the Verde River near Squaw Peak and then flew a route between the Matazals and Oxbow Hill.

If Jensen would have flown up The Salt and then The Tonto, the red line shows that flight path.  The red "x" marks the approx. location of witness Boardman.  The green line shows the flight crossing from Boardman's right to Boardman's left and represents how Boardman would have observed the aircraft. We haven't yet pieced together how Jensen would have arrived in The Verde Valley from San Diego.

However, we do have some perspectives regarding the local thinking about that theoretical flight path.

The two screen clips below are from a History of The Cottonwood, Arizona, Airport.  Chances are pretty good that the perspectives reported in this history were known to a wider aviation audience than just a few enthusiasts in The Verde. Jensen has spent time in Yuma, Arizona, and was married in an airplane there.  He flew extensively around America as a barnstormer pilot.  It's reasonable speculation that he could have viewed that route as a potential shortcut on his way to the East Coast.

 We will continue our digging into this line of thought and add more to this blog post.