Travel Together

The 160 hp Beardmore engine of the Bristol monoplane moaned its familiar tune as the WWI fighter played hide-and-seek among the misty clouds above the Tupuy.

After hours of searching these plateaus amid dense cloud cover, Crawford yelled above the drone of the engine for Jimmy Angel, his pilot, to land atop one of the mysterious formations that filled the horizon. As the pilot nosed the plane toward a thin clearing in the sandstone top of the mesa, McCracken wondered to himself; “I hope they weren’t lieing about this SOB being able to land on a dime”. Luckily, the exploits of “barnstormer” Jimmy Angel were no myth, and the two came to rest safely beside a rock strewn river bed at world’s end.

3 Years before, in 1921, J.R. McCracken had met Angel in a bar in Panama, and after having inquired of Angel about his flying skill, retained his services for $5000. Angel used most of the money to purchase the Bristol monoplane, and the two set about planning a trip to a destination and a destiny of which only McCracken had a clue to.

Angel, who had been a member of Charles Lindberg’s flying circus, was one of the most legendary pilots of the time. McCracken, a geologist and prospector from Alaska, had a secret and a dream that a man like Angel could help bring it to fruition. So, it was that a legendary adventure was born - in a smoke filled cantina in Central America - Hollywood could not have scripted it better.

Rivers Of Gold

Angel and McCracken dismounted the plane and explored the nearby terrain for a few minutes before McCracken bent over something in a stream bed. Angel watched with interest as the prospector gazed first at a rock he was holding in his hand, and then out across the length and breadth of the stream before him. The steamy jungle heat coaxed rivlets of sweat from the faces of the men as Angel asked; “What ya got there J.R.?” McCracken turned and shoved a golf ball sized gold nugget before Angel’s wide stretched eyes.

After what seemed like minutes, Angel looked past the nugget at McCracken, who was beaming from ear to ear. McCracken stared first at Jimmy, then at the gold nugget in the flyer’s hand and finally down at their feet planted in the stream bed. Jimmy instinctively followed the prospector’s attentive glance. At their feet, all around them and as far as Angel could see were larger and smaller specimens of the solid gold nugget he held in his hand. Like something only resident in a storybook or a child’s dream, they were literally standing in a river of gold.

Fortune’s Fate

Nightfall was quickly approaching atop the mesa and Angel knew they had to lift off from the mountain top soon. McCracken pulled his backpack off and the two began gathering as many nuggets as they could from the stream beds along the path back to the Bristol. All told, the lifted off with over 70 pounds of gold in the full knowledge that the subsequent expedition would be better organized. As fate would have it, this was not to be the case, for not long after their return to civilization McCracken fell deathly ill and died. The irony was that the two had only used McCracken’s “dead reckoning” and a miner’s compass to find the location of the cache. Just Jimmy Angel’s share of the gold in that backpack was worth $24,000 in 1924 valuation.

It should be noted that an ounce of gold back then sold for about $32. At today’s prices what the two hurriedly gathered together would be worth in excess of $720,000. The enormity of the find would lead Jimmy Angel on a lifelong quest to once again find the river of gold.

Unfavored By The Gods

Twice in 1930 Angel flew over the largest of the Tupuy (which by the way means “house of the gods”) - Auyantepui, but could not land atop it. Then in 1935 Case Pomeroy Company financed another expedition to find the legendary mountain of gold, which proved to be only partially unsuccessful. On this expedition Angel and his companions failed to find the “river of gold”, but they noted the most amazing waterfall any of them had ever dreamed of, the one which now bears Angel’s name - Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall in the world.

In 1937 Angel married, and soon after, accompanied by his new wife and a friend, they flew once again to the falls and attempted an ill fated landing atop it. Through no fault of Angel’s the end of the landing zone was muddy and the plane nose dived into the sandstone, leaving the adventurers unharmed but stranded in one of the most isolated places on Earth. Luckily, Angel’s friend had climbed the Tupuy before and was able to lead the group on an 11 day trek out of the wilderness. Angel’s plane remained atop the mountain where it lay until 1970, when it was copter lifted out to display in Ciudad Bolivar.

To put Angel’s quest in some perspective, in 1942 Angel got lost in the jungle in the “house of the gods” and finally emerged 9 days later. The Venezuelan military teams sent to look for the hero also got lost. The enormity and remoteness of this place is a little outside of what most of us can imagine. The airplane that Angel and McCracken first flew over the Tupuy with in 1924 was scarcely more than a toy airplane with no instruments and no canopy.

Atop the world, the world below obscured by clouds and hundreds of miles from anywhere Angel and his friend looked down on a lost world, lost to civilization and even the imagination.This is a story of adventure not even portrayable on the silver screen. Imagine the adrenaline rush and wonder of such a magnitude when the age of flying was so young.

Lost World - Lost Forever

Once again in 1956 Jimmy Crawford Angel donned his flying gear to venture in search of a lost world and the dream of a lifetime. The fates were not kind to the stalwart flyer on this day however, as his small Cessna was hit by a crosswind on the taxi off the runway in Panama - causing it to flip over. Angel suffered massive head injuries and died a few days later in the hospital.

According to his last wishes, he was cremated and his ashes were scattered over the top of Angle Falls. A sad but fitting end to one of the most courageous and adventurous men of modern times. The “Lost World” and the river of gold still elude discovery. Somehow, we all know they exist however, waiting there - high atop the world - gold glittering in the moonlight within arms reach. The stuff dreams are made of, sadly for Jimmy Angel - only a lifelong dream.

Angel Falls - Natural Wonder

One of the natural wonders of the world, Angel Falls dwarfs any other in shear majesty. Plummeting some 3000 feet, a ribbon of water descends the plateau like a bride’s veil.

More than 15 times higher than Niagara falls, the water from Angel Falls takes over 14 seconds to reach the base. Known by the Indians of Venezuela for thousands of years it is believed that Sir Walter Raleigh may have heard tales of it from the locals he encountered on his quest for El Dorado.

More recently, the famed Venezuelan explorer Ernesto Sánchez La Cruz, reportedly discovered it back in 1910. It was Jimmy Crawford Angel who is credited with it discovery however, and it is he for whom the wonder is named.

Interesting Lost World Notes

In his quest for El Dorado, Sir Walter Raleigh discovered Guiana and explored the jungles of Venezuela and Guiana extensively in search for the fabled city. According to a report to Queen Elizabeth by Raleigh;

“The country hath more quantity of gold, by manifold, than the best parts of the Indies, or Peru.”

As stated, Raleigh probably hear tales of Angel Falls from the Indians he encountered in 1595.

It is thought that the adventures of Jimmy Angel, at least in part, inspired the making of the movie “The Lost World” from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s book back in 1925.

Another notable influence of the lost world is supposedly that the movie King Kong drew much from both the area and the ethereal nature of this wonderful place.

The Lost World is actually a website dedicated to promoting CANAIMA NATIONAL PARK where visitors can experience Angel Falls and the other nearby natural wonders.

For those of you who would like more information on visiting Angel Falls, please visit Stay.com for local accommodation.

The trip to Angel Falls and Canaima National Park includes walking, hiking, swimming and river travel in large canoes (curiaras).

Related stories from the web:

• Jimmy Angel: Member in Good Standing in Steve’s “Bush Pilot”
• Wikipedia Tepui
• The Discovery of Guiana, 1595
• The Ultimate Angel Falls Adventure