Trek to Sassafras Knob with Surprising Find

A hike up to Sassafras Knob... with a surprising discovery! The High Ridge of the western Southern Nantahala Wilderness Area is trail-less and seldom visited. While much of the western side of the ridge-line, which runs E-W just south of the GA-NC border, is relatively easy hiking, climbing up to that point is a work-out! On a cool January morning I decided to climb up to the ridge-line, and travel to Mayapple Knob, hoping for some decent winter views.

We had bare ground at our house, but the trees and ground at higher elevation were partly snow-covered.

High up on the slopes of Skut Knob, I came across some scattered pieces of aluminum.

Looking around for additional remnants, something much larger caught my eye as I looked up slope:

At first I thought this was an old communications tower or mast. How did the structure get here? This area is too steep for even the old logging roads... (Despite having worked at Lockheed for 35 years, for some reason I never even thought "aircraft" at the time. This welded tube structure was unlike anything I had seen on modern aircraft frames during my aeronautical career!)

Update - 3 days later! A former coworker commented "Probably not, but it looks almost like the fuselage frame of a WWII assault glider." That got me wondering... See the above photo, showing the frame of a DFS-230 German glider (photo by friend Nick Wotherspoon). Note the windshield framing. Now re-look at the image above it (the structure I found). Imagine that it is laying on its side, and flip it over to the right. That sure looks like a similar windshield frame, and you can see the curvature where it meets the plane's nose. So apparently this is indeed an old aircraft fuselage! Now to determine the aircraft model and a record of the incident...

Aircraft fuselage frame, seen from the front. It's lying on its right side.

Fuselage frame from the underside

What initially seemed like unusual fittings attached to the unknown structure were now identified as landing gear & wing strut supports.

What I thought was the upper section of a tower (or ?) was now seen as the aft end of the fuselage. It is over 30 feet long.

Aft end of the structure. Note that some aluminum skin can be seen attached to the framing.
I soon learned new information about this aircraft and the crash site. But first, continue viewing this album of what started out as a simple hike; then visit the additional "Crash" links at the bottom of the page.

Discovering the aircraft put me behind schedule, but I finally resumed the climb up to the ridge-top, and headed for Sassafras Knob. There's no real trail, but this is an example of the ridge-line route.

Looking back to the WSW at the silhouette of Eagle Mountain

A view to the south from Sassafras Knob (4127'), looking down into valleys of Scataway and Hightower Creeks. Old Nell Knob is just to the right of center. Double Spring Knob (4275') is the tallest peak on the right horizon.

Hightower Bald, Georgia's fourth highest peak (4564'), with a touch of snow, viewed from Sassafras Knob. The peak to the right is Shooting Creek Bald.

A view to the NNW into North Carolina, with Chunky Gal-Boteler Ridge at right-center, and the Tusquitee Range on the horizon.

View to the NE, toward Shooting Creek and the Hwy 64 climb up Chunky Gal.

Discovering the aircraft didn't leave me enough time to continue to Mayapple Knob, so I headed back along the high ridge. While not quite a knife-edge, much of the trek is along a similar narrow, rounded ridge-top. I'm sure the crest was a lot sharper when the Appalachians were a young mountain chain...

You are viewing the "Initial Discovery" page. See these additional pages covering the Norseman crash site:
Initial Discovery
Norseman Crash - 1	Norseman Crash - 2	Norseman Crash - 3	Norseman Crash - 4
Norseman Crash - 5	Norseman Crash - 6	Norseman Crash - 7

Misc. Explr. Index	S. Nantahala Index
Hiawassee Index	NE GA - NC Index