Jimmie Angel, Aviator, Explorer, Prospector

On a warm August 1st in 1899 a young woman, who had North Carolina Indian Cherokee lineage, gave birth to an adventurist young boy in Cedar Valley, Missouri. In many ways, growing up in a town that would eventually become an island in a man-made reservoir, then renamed Oasis, and eventually submerged 100 feet below the surface of the reservoir, was the perfect beginning for the life of an explorer. The young man's name was James "Jimmy" Angel.

Jimmie Angel’s parents Glenn Davis Angel and Margaret Belle Marshall Angel with three of his younger brothers – Henry Parker on the left, William Edward “Eddie” center, and baby Clifford Esby on the right – Jimmie standing on the right was about eight years old.

Jimmie regularly attended school where he soon developed a sense of wonder and amazement at the world of aviation rapidly changing around him. At the age of 14 his fascination and love of aviation led him to learn how to fly. This was the Golden Age of Aviation era which featured barnstorming spectacles, the birth of private airmail routes, crucial federal safety laws, and Charles Lindbergh’s historic 1927 transatlantic flight. As it turned out, Jimmie Angel was a natrual and talented airplane pilot.

(L to R) Glenn Davis and Margaret Belle Angel with their five sons: child Clyde Marshall in sailor suit, William Edward, Henry Parker, Jimmie Crawford in uniform, and Clifford Esby Angel the day of their sister Goldie Etoile’s funeral in May 1921.

As a flight instructor, test pilot, movie stunt pilot, and barnstormer, Jimmie Angel developed his flying skills. In the 1920s, Jimmie got his first taste of exploration and adventure by flying throughout Mexico, Central America and South America. This simply increased his desire to explore faraway and exotic lands, while at the same time honing his skills as a pilot. In 1921, when Jimmie was just 22 years old, he met a gentleman by the name of J.R. McCraken in a bar in Panama, Central America.

Over drinks, McCraken asked Jimmie about his flying credentials. "I hear you can land on a dime" the old prospector said. In response Jimmie said "I'm your man," and went on to tell how he had flown with the Charles Lindbergh flying circus. McCraken then went on to tell Jimmie about a remote mountaintop along the Brazil/Venezuelan border where there was more gold than he could imagine. 

It took several years for the two to make arrangements for the search. Jimmie's upfront fee was $ 5,000, which he promptly used to purchase his airplane. So, in 1924 McCraken and Jimmie Angel took off in search of the gold. After refueling the airplane in Ciudad Bolivar on the Orinoco River, they flew to the south, McCraken guiding him through the cloud-topped mountains. They finally flew over a series of flat-topped mountains.

McCraken, using the Spanish dip needle, or a miners compass, easily picked out the right spot on the flat sandstone Tepui and told him to land. They jumped out and surveyed the incredible scene. All around them streambeds glittered with gold ore. "There was gold everywhere", he told everybody when he came back after the first flight. Jimmy Angel and McCracken his partner worked quickly, stuffing pockets and bags with more than 45 kilos of gold ore from the Tepuy mother lode. Daylight was fading fast. Realizing they had to get off the mesa before nightfall, they slung the gold aboard Mr. Angel's airplane and took off.

McCraken, the old prospector from Alaska, became sick a few days later and died. Mr. Angel was beside himself with grief. Not only was his partner dead, his chances of finding the mountain of gold again were slim without the knowledge of locating gold ore. Jimmie Angel spent 32 years and the rest of his life searching for that gold-packed mountain. He never found it.

In the 1930s and 1940s a number of mining companies hired him as a pilot, and later on he flew for diamond, gold, and oil mining companies. He became well known for exploring Venezuela from his airplane from1932 to 1942. In 1937 Jimmie Angel was hired by companies who were looking to mine gold in Venezuela, and they wanted Jimmie to fly his airplane and conduct aerial survelience of an area where they believed he might locate the Lost River of Gold. It had long been told that gold had been discovered in a river in Venezuela, and based upon that information some mining companies were formed to look for and harvest that gold. Jimmy had surveiled the flat Auyántepui looking for a landing spot.

During the month of November 1933 Jimmie Angel discovered an incredible waterfall in Venezuela. He had been flying solo in the Churún Canyon in the heart of the vast tabeltop mesa known as Auyán-tepui looking for a mysterious river of gold that a geologist had allegedly shown him years earlier. While circumnavigating the colossal Auyántepui he came face to face with the breathtaking, endless cascade of water. Upon his return, few believed the scale of what he claimed to have seen. Upon landing he had noted in his flight logbook: "FOUND MYSELF A WATERFALL." He was so taken by the view that he decided he needed to go back and explore those falls more closely. So, on November 18, 1933, Jimmie Angel took his wife and two other friends and flew back to where he had first seen the waterfall.

Auyan-tepui - The Mountain Behind Angel Falls.

A panoramic aerial view of the Angel Falls in Venezuela.

On October 9, 1937, Jimmy attempted a landing but the wheels of his aircraft broke through the sod and sank into the mud, which brought the airplane to an abrupt halt with broken landing gear, and the nose buried in the mud. With him on that flight were his wife Marie, the explorer Gustavo Heny, and a mechanic. They found themselves stranded on top of one of the most inhospitable and isolated plateaus on the planet.

Photogrph of Jimmie Angel’s plane on top of the tepui in Venezuela.

The bad news was that he wouldn't be able to fly himself and his passengers out until the airplane was repaired. With no radio and the airplane wrescked, he and his companions were forced to descend down the mountain on foot. Guided by Gustavo Heny, they trekked for 11 grueling days through dense jungle and perilous cliffs before reaching a human settlement. Their survival was nothing short of a miracle.

In 1939, the Venezuelan government officially named the colossal water fall Angel Falls (Salto Ángel) in his honor. His beloved airplane, named El Río Caroní, remained abandoned atop the marshy plateau for 33 years as a silent monument to his audacity. Finally, in 1970, the Veneuelan Air Force took his airplane apart and airlifted it out. Today, El Río Caroní has been restored and stands proudly on display right outside of the airport in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela.

Jimmy Angel's aircraft on exhibit in front of the Ciudad Bolivar Airport in Venezuela.

In 1947, American photojournalist Ruth Robertson saw Angel Falls while flying in an unconverted C-47 in Churún Canyon (Devil’s Canyon). During that first flight, Robertson shot more than a dozen “Kodachromes” and resolved to enter the canyon on foot to photograph Angel Falls from below and to determine its exact height.

A photograph of Ruth Robertson at Angel Falls holding her camera.

In May 1949 she led the first expedition (The Forgotten Expedition) inside the Churún Canyon. Her photographs, as well as her account of the journey, were published in National Geographic, November 1949, and the falls’ height announced to the world: the drop of 2,648 feet; the total 3,212 (979 meters).

Jimmie Angel sustained a head injury from loose cargo while landing his airplane on April 17th, 1956, in David, Panama. Soon after the landing, he suffered a heart attack. He had various health problems for the next eight months. He was admitted to Gorgas Hospital, Canal Zone, for the treatment of pneumonia where he died on December 8th, 1956, from a cerebral hemorrhage. 

A photograph of the James Jimmie Angel Memorial Plaque in Canaima National Park.

I hope you enjoyed this trip through some of the history of aviation. If you enjoyed the story, please share it with all of your friends. And, if you are new to this blog, sign up to receive your own weekly blog post here: Subscribe here!

Until next time, keep your eyes safe and focused on what's ahead of you, Hersch!