We left the campground at 10:00 after we did a quick wash of the other side of the trailer while it was still in the shade. The view of Moosehead Lake from the top of the hill entering town is an awesome site.
Just a mile or two up the road from town (Lily Bay Road) is this newly built private home with 3 guest houses for his family and friends. It is awesome!
We drove about 6 miles to Prong Pound Road. This is where we turned off to locate the B-52 Memorial.
On January 24, 1963 a B-52 with a 9-member crew lost its vertical stabilizer during turbulence at low altitude and crashed on Elephant Mountain 6 miles from Greenville. The pilot and the navigator survived the crash. The B-52 Memorial is the crash site and we wanted to check it out. The road is an active logging road and logging trucks have the right of way. Luckily, they didn't seem to be working on this road today.
Prong Pound Rd. is a gravel road, so we were taking our time on this 7-mile stretch of road to the site, always on the lookout for moose.
Four vehicles came up behind us, so we pulled over to where we could to let them pass. That put up quite a wall of dust. We waited for the dust to clear before moving on.
This mile marker is the only way we knew where we were and how far we had to go.
Whenever we stopped to check our surroundings for moose, the truck was engulfed in horseflies. Hundreds of them! We wondered how we would ever make the short walk up the path through the woods to the crash site without being eaten alive. We made one wrong turn, but eventually found the site.
We made the easy hike through the woods and were not bothered by horseflies, mosquitoes, or any bugs. We were surprised!
As we made our way up the path, we came upon pieces of the plane that were strewn about the forest. Pieces of the plane were laying everywhere.
The debris field was large and spread out with pieces of metal wedged between branches and hanging from trees.
Large and small pieces of metal from the plane were everywhere.
A sign asked people to be respectful and to not remove or deface any pieces in the crash site. The majority of people over the years have done just that, but you always have a few who don't.
Some of the pieces of the plane were recognizable and others were not. They are still finding pieces of the plane to this day and one of the ejection seats was last discovered by a hunter in 2013. Three of the seats are in museums around the area.
Every winter, on the anniversary date of the crash, the local snowmobile club has a memorial ride to the site where they lay a wreath, taps is played, and the names of the deceased crew members are read in a memorial service. The crash site is quite the place to see.
We took a different road back to the main highway and stopped at the Moosehead Lake overlook. It was another perfect day on the lake.
We drove into town and stopped at the Harris Drug Store where we sat at the old-fashioned soda fountain stools for a root beer float (my all-time favorite) and a small dish of maple nut ice cream for Bob. Mmm…mmm.,,Good!
After enjoying that, we walked over to the shops along the lake and then stopped to fill up the tank at the gas station before our departure tomorrow. It was a beautiful day with temps in the low 80's and hazy skies. Back at the campground, we relaxed in the shade with Auggie until Bob got the urge to wash the truck after our dusty drive today.
We had dinner and took our evening walk together for our last night here at Moosehead Lake Campground. After our walk, Auggie was tired and acting more like a cat than a dog.
We enjoyed our time here at Moosehead Lake and in the town of Greenville. We were talking that it might be one of those places that we want to come back to again and spend more time here. Our drive tomorrow is 89 miles to the northeast near Baxter State Park and Millinocket, ME. We are looking forward to exploring more of the wilderness and looking for that elusive moose. Here moosy, moosy!
