A story surfaced recently about American fighter planes at the bottom of Lesser Slave Lake. Lyndsey Carmichael, the library archivist in Slave Lake, says she heard from a fellow who calls himself ‘Mr. Nose Art,’ because he’s an expert on decorations that adorn the front tip of aircraft. His real name is Clarence Simonsen and he’s from Acme, Alberta. Anyway, he has an interest in airplanes and he wanted to know if Carmichael had ever heard a story about these three fighter planes that landed on the ice of Lesser Slave Lake in 1945.

She hadn’t, and now she’s looking around for any local memories or lore on the topic. She says she did hear from somebody, who heard from the late Charlie Jackson about it.

The date of the crash-landing was April 20, 1945. The story Carmichael heard is that on that date the three planes had strayed too far from their route and ran out of fuel. So they landed on the lake ice, perhaps out in the narrows. American military personnel stripped the planes of weapons and ammunition, the story continues, and then abandoned them to their fate, which was to sink once the ice melted. Presumably they did, and they’re still down there somewhere.

Carmichael told us this story on Jan. 30. She was still keen on getting in touch with people who might have heard of the story. If it’s true, there must be a record of it somewhere.