Object description

The Rogers-Post Site, located on the North Slope of the U.S. state of Alaska, is the location of a plane crash that killed humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post on August 15, 1935, during an aerial tour of Alaska. It is about 11 miles southwest of Utqiaġvik, on the north side of Walakpa Bay near the mouth of the Walakpa River. The flight was described by the Associated Press as prelude to a planned Trans-Siberian flight to Moscow. The pair were flying from Fairbanks to Barrow when they encountered fog and low visibility. Locating a hole in the fog at Walakpa Bay, they landed. They spent some time with a small party of Alaska Natives and received directions for the short distance remaining to Barrow. They were barely airborne, around 50 feet , when the motor failed. The aircraft plummeted into the lagoon and overturned. It was the first fatal air accident near the city of Utqiaġvik.