To get credit for finding this cache you must post a photo of yourself at the cache site! Logs without photos will be deleted.
Wiley Post was a famed American aviator during the interwar period and the first person to fly solo around the world. Also known for his work in high-altitude flying, Post helped develop one of the first pressure suits and discovered the jet stream. He was born on November 22, 1898, in Corinth, Texas, but he grew up in Oklahoma.
Will Rogers was an American stage and film actor, vaudeville performer, cowboy, humorist, newspaper columnist, radio personality, and social commentator. He was born on November 4, 1879, in Oologah, Indian Territory (now part of the state of Oklahoma). He was known as "Oklahoma's Favorite Son".
Will Rogers became an advocate for the aviation industry during the 1920s and 1930s, and he was friends with Charles Lindbergh and Wiley Post. In 1935, Wiley Post became interested in surveying a mail-and-passenger route from the West Coast of the United States to Russia. Rogers asked Post to fly him through Alaska in search of new material for his newspaper column, and the two left Lake Washington (near Renton, Washington), in Post's modified Lockheed Orion-Explorer floatplane in early August 1935.
After making several stops in Alaska, on August 15 they left Fairbanks, but began having difficulty figuring their position due to bad weather about 20 miles southwest of Point Barrow. They landed in a lagoon to ask directions, and on takeoff, the engine failed at low altitude, and the aircraft plunged into the lagoon, shearing off the right wing, and ended up inverted in the shallow water of the lagoon. Both men died instantly.
Wiley Post was buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Will Rogers was originally buried at Forest Lawn Park in Glendale, California, but he was later reinterred at the Will Rogers Memorial in Claremore, Oklahoma on May 19, 1944.
The Wiley Post-Will Rogers Memorial Airport in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, was named for both men, as well as the Will Rogers-Wiley Post Memorial Seaplane Base at the north end of the Renton Municipal Airport on Lake Washington.
Wiley Post Airport in Oklahoma City was named in his honor in 1943. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1932, the Gold Medal of Belgium in 1934, and the International Harmon Trophy in 1934. He was enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1969, and he was inducted into the First Flight Society's First Flight Shrine in 1970. Post was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in 1997, and into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2004.
Will Rogers World Airport in Okahoma City was named in his honor in 1941. The World War II Liberty Ship SS Will Rogers was named for him and sponsored by his widow Betty Rogers when it was launched on November 11, 1942. The final ship in the Benjamin Franklin-Class of ballistic missile submarines was also named in his honor: USS Will Rogers (SSBN-659) served from its commissioning in 1967 until its decommissioning in 1993. Will Rogers starred in 71 films between 1918 and his death in 1935, and he has a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame during his lifetime in 1932.