Sale Creek author and historian Curtis Coulter has just completed a book titled The Flight of the Dove – A Story Wanting to Be Told about the crash of a De Havilland Dove aircraft on Walden’s Ridge near Brayton and the Sale Creek Mountain community on July 23, 1954.
This true story recounts the tragedy that claimed the lives of six individuals from five families in Benton Harbor, St. Joseph, Lawrence, and Pontiac, Michigan, including Howard Anthony, the nationally known electronics manufacturer and owner of the Heath Company, maker of the popular Heathkit do-it-yourself electronic sets.
Mr. Coulter is hosting a book signing at the Sale Creek Independent Presbyterian Church on Sunday, May 18, from 3-6 p.m. Everyone is welcome to attend. Refreshments will be served.
Mr. Coulter will present a brief PowerPoint presentation highlighting the book's key points. Also present will be the daughter of the aircraft's pilot and the two sons of the copilot. They will give their accounts of their families’ experiences before and after the crash. Others who witnessed the crash scene will also attend, including one person who heard the crash but did not see it due to the fog that veiled the area.
The story includes biographical information on all six victims of the crash and how each of them was connected, either personally or through business, to Howard Anthony. The group included a heating engineer and his wife, a designer and artist who was Anthony's best friend, the pilot who owned and sold the plane to the Heath Company, and the copilot who was Anthony’s company pilot.
The book tells the reason the Heath Company was in the process of purchasing the plane. Also, the book describes the flight's origin in Michigan and its destination. The dual purpose of the trip is also revealed.
Mr. Coulter said two family members felt a sense of impending doom for their loved one and urged them not to go. The copilot's wife was initially meant to be on the plane but was miraculously replaced at the last moment by another passenger's wife at Howard Anthony's request. This act was recently described by one of her sons as a "God thing."
The book contains 24 photographs, including images of four of the six victims, as well as a picture of the aircraft taxiing to the runway for takeoff that morning. Family members’ accounts of the morning's activities and goodbyes are documented, along with the trauma of receiving the announcement that the plane had crashed on Walden’s Ridge at 2:20 p.m. killing everyone on board. Eyewitness accounts of the crash are derived from official documents, newspaper articles, personal testimonies, and quotations provided to the author.
The mystery of a seventh charred billfold found in the crash debris raised the possibility of an unidentified seventh victim. Other mysteries surrounding the crash are examined, including the possibility that the plane exploded in midair. Another mystery involving the spectacle of several thousand people converging on the crash site and continuing to come for two months is explained. The book tells the object of their curiosity at the crash site and about the additional dangers encountered by visitors to the crash site, including navigating the rocky terrain and the presence of rattlesnakes that congregated there, hindering recovery operations.
The narrative examines how each family coped with the aftermath of the crash and how the disaster impacted their lives. It includes the investigations conducted by the Civil Aeronautics Board and the De Havilland Company, along with their findings concerning the cause of the crash, which was initially thought to be an explosion but was later disproven. Additionally, it discusses the lawsuits filed in 1955 against the plane's owner, seller, and pilot.
Mr. Coulter said Mr. Anthony’s widow provided financial assistance to two families. This included funding high school and college education for his best friend’s children, purchasing a new car for their mother, and building a new house for the copilot’s wife and her three sons, actions that may have been driven by a sense of guilt of Mr. Anthony’s widow since she was half-owner of Heath Company. Several family members later perceived those sentiments.
Mr. Coulter said, "I narrate the story as the author; however, I also rely on the actual words of the copilot’s two sons, the pilot's daughter, the son and daughter of Anthony's best friend, and Anthony's niece. Those individuals share their families’ stories in their own words. Also included are the testimonies of people from Sale Creek, Brayton, Hendon, Dayton, and Pikeville, who remembered the crash and shared their accounts of the sights and experiences that day."
Two successful searches for the crash site were mounted by the copilot’s three sons in 1994 and the pilot’s daughter in 2004. The copilot’s sons' quest ended with a miraculous discovery of the impact site just a few minutes before they were scheduled to leave the area and return to Knoxville Airport to fly back to Denver, Colorado.
Mr. Coulter's searches for the crash site are included in the narrative. The six searches by up to seven individuals were unable to locate the impact site, even though they felt they could have “thrown a rock” and probably hit the point of impact. Metal detectors, residents’ memories of the crash area, and photographs of the crash site were used in attempts to find the impact site.
Contact with the sons, daughters, and nieces of the crash victims was facilitated by a distant relative of Mr. Anthony from Three Rivers, Mich. Contact was made with the son and daughter of one passenger in Irondequoit, New York, and Traverse City, Mich., respectively; the copilot’s sons in Colorado through a contact with a relative in Idaho; Mr. Anthony’s niece in Parma, Mich.; and the pilot’s daughter in Kalamazoo, Mich.
The Flight of the Dove is described as "an informative and compelling story about a plane crash that occurred almost three-quarters of a century ago. Imagine the wonder of gathering firsthand information about the crash and the victims after nearly three-quarters of a century, as well as the local reactions to the disaster. The facts and revelations presented in The Flight of the Dove provide a deeper understanding of the various facets of this story about the catastrophe, informing readers about how the victims’ families attempted to cope with the loss of their loved ones on that fateful day and move forward toward a sense of normalcy again. Those individuals’ comments reflect another human truth – how tragedies affect human hearts and how those memories are forever etched in their minds as if carved in stone."