Yep, I was there then. Rumor had it that a lot of Camp 4 folks financed a lot of climbing equipment and even some down payments on houses from that gold rush. Can't quite remember but I think there's a fictionalized account (Long??) written about it and Howard Weamer devotes a fairly long section to it in his The Perfect Art: Ostrander Hut and skiing in Yosemite.

It took the NPS a couple of months after the crash to realize what was going on. It was a drought year, so pretty easy to get to the site (Lower Merced Pass Lake). Although NPS arrested a few people after a raid at the lake, I don't think anyone was ever convicted.

George

None of the views expressed here in any way represent those of the unidentified agency that I work for or, often, reality. It's just me, fired up by coffee and powerful prose.