15 (missing) G's in San Gorgonio Pass

[Yichus]

From the LA Times...

"Maps in his garage are studded with hundreds of pins: Here's where Dean Martin's son crashed in the San Bernardinos. There's where Frank Sinatra's mother went down. Here's where a plane loaded with $15,000 in cash -- big money in 1956 -- struck the north side of San Gorgonio Pass. The plane was found in 1971, but the cash wasn't."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 0495.story

Does anyone have additional information on this plane wreck? I haven't had a chance to do any research on the topic.

Did the initial wreck and subsequent discovery of the plane receive a great deal of press coverage?

Thanks.

[Hikin_Jim]

Here's where a plane loaded with $15,000 in cash -- big money in 1956 -- struck the north side of San Gorgonio Pass. The plane was found in 1971, but the cash wasn't."

Does anyone have additional information on this plane wreck? I haven't had a chance to do any research on the topic.

How do you think I support my lavish lifestyle ...

[Yichus]

Hi HJ,

It's only 15k -- you must not have that lavish a lifestyle! It could, however, buy several tanks of gas.

[AlanK]

Hi HJ,

It's only 15k -- you must not have that lavish a lifestyle! It could, however, buy several tanks of gas.

Yeah, but buy those tanks soon!

[asabat]

But if he had invested it wisely, earning 10% a year, he'd have over a million bucks now. Of course, we are talking about a hiker, though...

[Yichus]

Hi HJ,

It's only 15k -- you must not have that lavish a lifestyle! It could, however, buy several tanks of gas.

Yeah, but buy those tanks soon!

Yes, very true!

[Hikin_Jim]

Actually, imagine if I had bought gasoline in 1956 (at, what, $0.199* per gallon?) with the $15,000 and could magically move it to the future. 75,000+ gallons of gasoline. Now you're talking!!

HJ

*that's just a guess. I can still remember $0.299 signs from when I was a little kid. I'm assuming it was even less in 1956. I just paid $4.089 recently. That's a really nice ROI from $0.199 to $4.089!

[Yichus]

*that's just a guess. I can still remember $0.299 signs from when I was a little kid.

.29 cents a gallon! I don't ever recall -- even as a little kid -- gas selling for less that $1 a gallon. Jim, you really are dating yourself.

Them were the good ol' days.

[Hikin_Jim]

It was a huge deal when gas started approaching $1.00 a gallon. None of the gas pumps had a setting greatter than $0.999! Basically, all of the gas pumps in the US had to be replaced/reconfigured.

There was a joke at the time that the $1.00 bill was (then President) Jimmy Carter's version of a gas ration stamp. For you youngsters, gas ration stamps or coupons were issued during WWII to control gasoline consumption: no stamp, no gas.

Speaking of energy, during WWII they also had double daylight savings part of the year. Talk about hiking heaven: "Whoa, look at the time! It's 8:00PM, we'd better get a move on; we've 'only' got two more hours of daylight!".

No, I didn't live through WWII, but it was much talked about since it was less 20 years since the end of the war and most of the middle aged men had served in the war.

Anciently yours,

HJ

[AlanK]

If we're going to kick ourselves about missed investment oportunities, we need to take inflation into account. Here is a chart comparing nominal and inflation-adjusted gasoline prices:

The lowest price ever occurred in 1999. That's when you should have bought!

Since we're dating ourselves, I will certainly admit to seeing gas at less than $0.30 per gallon. Even in 1972, one could find it that cheap here in California (yes, gas used to be cheaper here than most other states).