Above Photo: The old 1925 courthouse, now Bulkley Valley Museum in
Smithers British Columbia.
The old courthouse was built in 1925 and is located at the intersection of Main Street and Highway 16. The courthouse houses the Bulkley Valley museum which has a wonderful display of artifacts from days past.
I really did enjoy myself wandering through the museum and looking at all the exhibits. Some of what you can find are, the 100 years of photography in the Valley, the Witsuwit'en Exhibit and aviation in Northern British Columbia and there is much more to look at.
If you are traveling through, or visiting Smithers, make time to stop and enjoy the museum as it is open year round.
Above Photo: The old 1925 courthouse, now Bulkley Valley Museum in
Smithers British Columbia.
You can find the Bulkley Valley museum at 1425 Main St, Smithers, B.C. You can reach them at: (250) 847-5322
The exhibit entitled Wings Over the North: Aviation in Northern British Columbia covers float planes that operated throughout the area and in 1950 a B-36 bomber that crashed north of Smithers after jettisoning a Mark 4 nuclear bomb. I have posted additional information on the B-36 bomber crash below.
Above Photo: The old 1925 courthouse, now Bulkley Valley Museum in
Smithers British Columbia.
The Below Source information: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_British_Columbia_B-36_crash
1950 British Columbia B-36 crash.
On 14 February 1950, a Convair B-36B, Air Force Serial Number 44-92075 assigned to the 7th Bomb Wing at Carswell Air Force Base, crashed in northern British Columbia after jettisoning a Mark 4 nuclear bomb.
This was the first such nuclear weapon loss in history. The B-36 had been en route from Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska to Carswell AFB in Fort Worth, Texas, more than 3000 miles south-east, on a mission that included a simulated nuclear attack on San Francisco.
Above Photo: One of the guns that came from the wreckage of the crashed
Convair B-36 Bomber.
Incident:
Plane 44-92075, was on a mission that was part of the first full-scale practice nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. Each B-36 involved in this exercise was to conduct a simulated nuclear attack on an American city.
Above Photo: The old 1925 courthouse, now Bulkley Valley Museum in
Smithers British Columbia.
The exercise was also intended to test whether the B-36 could attack the Soviet Union during the Arctic winter, when temperatures are so low that if a plane engine were to be shut down for servicing on the ground, the engine could not be restarted.
Aircraft 44-92075 took off from Eielson AFB with a regular crew of 15 plus a Weaponeer and a Bomb Commander. The plan for the 24-hour flight was to fly over the North Pacific, due west of the Alaska panhandle and British Columbia, then head inland over Washington state and Montana.
Here the B-36 would climb to 40,000 feet for a simulated bomb run to southern California and then San Francisco, it would continue its non-stop flight to Fort Worth, Texas.
Above Photo: The old 1925 courthouse, now Bulkley Valley Museum in
Smithers British Columbia.
The flight plan did not include any penetration of Canadian airspace. The plane carried a Mark IV atomic bomb, containing a substantial quantity of natural uranium and 5000 pounds of conventional explosives. According to the USAF, the bomb did not contain the plutonium core necessary for a nuclear detonation.
Cold weather (−40 °F/−40 °C on the ground at Eielson AFB) adversely affected the planes involved in this exercise, and some minor difficulties with 44-92075 were noted before takeoff. Seven hours into the flight, three of the six engines began shooting flames and were shut down, and the other three engines proved incapable of delivering full power. The subsequent investigation blamed ice buildup in the mixture control air intakes.
Above Photo: The old 1925 courthouse, now Bulkley Valley Museum in
Smithers British Columbia.
The crew decided to abandon the aircraft because it could not stay aloft with three engines out of commission while carrying a heavy payload. The atomic bomb was jettisoned and detonated in mid-air, resulting in a large conventional explosion over the Inside Passage. The USAF later stated that the fake practice core on board the aircraft was inserted into the weapon before it was dropped.
The aircraft commander steered the plane over Princess Royal Island to spare his crew having to parachute into the cold North Pacific, whereupon the crew bailed out. Before bailing out last, he set a turning course toward the open ocean using the autopilot.
The plane had been in constant radio contact with Strategic Air Command headquarters at Offutt AFB, Nebraska, and within minutes of the bailout the Royal Canadian Air Force launched Operation Brix to find the missing men. Poor weather hampered search efforts; nevertheless 12 of the 17 men were eventually found alive.
Above Photo: The old 1925 courthouse, now Bulkley Valley Museum in
Smithers British Columbia.
Four of the five deceased airmen were believed to have bailed out of the aircraft earlier than the surviving crew members, and it was assumed that they landed in the ocean and died of hypothermia.
Two years later the partial remains of one of them was hauled up in a fishing net, while the remains of the fifth, the weaponeer, were recovered in 1954 from the crash site[dubious – discuss]. Canadian authorities were never told that the aircraft was carrying a nuclear weapon.
To find out more about the Bulkley Valley Museum, please visit their website at:
Travel British Columbia with Brian Vike blog, please contact me at b_vike@telus.net
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