Hike to The Aircraft Crash Memorial on Japacha Ridge, Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, California

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Located at an elevation of nearly 4,600 feet on a stone-lined terraced ledge just below and east of Japacha Peak in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park is a lonely memorial dating back to San Diego’s golden days of military aviation. on December 7, 1922, when 26-year-old U.S. Army pilot Charles F. Webber, in a World War I De Havilland biplane, flew out of Rockwell Field on North Island. His mission was to fly U.S. Cavalry colonel Francis C. Marshall for an inspection tour at Fort Hauchuca, Arizona. In May 1923, rancher George McCain discovered the plane’s wreckage and burnt remains of the two Army officers in the melting snow. McCain guided a military team to the site and they salvaged what they could but left the massive V12 engine block. Erected on May 22, 1923, and refurbished later in 1934 and 1968, it consists of the battered and burnt V12- cylinder aircraft engine mounted on a stone and concrete pedestal. Affixed to the pedestal’s base is a bronze plaque, dedicating the structure to the memory of U.S. Army pilot First Lieutenant Charles F. Webber and U.S. Cavalry Colonel Francis C. Marshall, “who fell on this spot on December 7, 1922.” The ridge above the site was named Airplane Ridge, and the trail leading to it was named Monument Trail. Off Highway 79, park in the large Sweetwater Trailhead parking area in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, just north of the Green Valley campground and south of the visitors center. From this parking area, walk north across the bridge over Sweetwater River on Highway 79 to start on the West Side Trail on the west side of the road. It's about a 4.5-mile out-and-back on the same trail, or about a 5.3-mile loop if continuing north on the Monument Trail. It's also a short walk from the West Mesa Trail is the Airplane Monument. www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/v51-3/pdf/v51-3_crash.pdf

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