Spindle Quest: Chasing Lost Creek Gold. - Slumach

26
Mike Boileau and the Mitchell Bomber
“and where’s the B-25?” I asked looking at the map.
“It’s right here,” he said pointing at a mountain just
above Spindle Canyon. He then took a pen from his
pocket and placed and X on the spot.
RETuRNED to my Pitt Lake explorations in the spring
I of 1990 and called a few people mentioned in the newspaper
articles to hear their stories about the lost mine first
hand. One of the first people I contacte was Mike Boileau,
very intrigued as I was by his story about the wreck of an
airplane he found in the Pitt Lake area while searching for
the gold.
Originally Boileau had found only a few pieces of metal
from the wreck that were later identified as pieces of a B-25
bomber. Mitchell B-25 bombers were used after the war
to haul military cargo throughout Canada and one went
missing on its approach to Vancouver. It reportedly carried
a valuable load—eight hundred thousand dollars in cash
to pay the Armed Forces personnel on the West Coast and
eight thousand dollars in gold bullion.
Boileau decided to go back into the canyon and try
to find the aircraft, and who wouldn’t with that kind of
money at stake. Had he found the wreck? This could be the
king of all treasure leads.
“Hello?” answered a deep voice.
“Is this Mike Boileau there?” I asked nervously.
“Ya, this is him.”
“You don’t know me, but I just read an article about your
involvement with Pitt Lake in an old newspaper.”
“Ya, what about it?”
“It said that you found a crashed B-25 bomber.”
“Yes, that’s true,” he said in a blunt “get to the point” tone.
“Would you be willing to tell me where it is?” I asked
expecting him to hang up. There was a small silence in the
conversation as I sat there with my fingers crossed. I could
almost hear Boileau thinking.
“I tell you what,” he said breaking the silence, “do you
have a map?”
“Yes,” I answered anxiously.
“Why don’t you call me back tomorrow around six in the
evening and we will arrange a meeting.”
“Okay, sure,” I said trying to bottle the excitement that
was now pumping through my veins.
“Great. Talk to you later,” he said and hung up.
That was beautiful. I felt like I was standing on the
threshold of a great adventure. I called Mike Boileau and
agreed when and where to meet. I brought along two of the
guys I had been hanging around with that year in school,
Kurt Lytle and Jim Steinberg.
Kurt was a really nice guy. He wanted to be a stunt man
and I tell you, he was just crazy. He used to crawl out on
the canopy of my truck when I was flying down a logging
road at 100 miles an hour. The weird thing is that I was
never worried that he would fall off. I knew that Kurt had
what it took.
© Daryl Friesen 2009