Jimmie Angel: Bush Pilot Who Found 'Angel Falls'

Daredevil Flyer in Latin America During the 1920s and 30s.

Jul 15, 2008

Jimmie Angel learned to fly in World War I, discovered gold on 'Devil Mountain', then found Venezuela's 'Angel Falls'.

Jimmie Angel became world famous for discovering Venezuela's Angel Falls, which were named after him. But he was not looking for them; he was trying to find gold on Devil Mountain! It is an amazing story, and no-one really knows how much of it is true and how much the product of Jimmie Angel's imagination...but Angel Falls most definitely exist.

Early Life of a Bush Pilot

James Crawford Angel was born in Springfield, Missouri in 1899. In 1916 he enlisted in Britain’s Royal Flying Corps, and flew throughout World War.

After the War, Jimmie flew in China, joined the U S Army Air Corps, then became a test pilot in Chile. Later he headed north to Mexico and began bush flying. Soon he was running a one-aircraft air service in Panama, and there he met gold prospector McCracken…although Jimmie sometimes said his name was McClintock or Williamson!

By 1924 Jimmie Angel was well known as a highly skilled bush pilot. McCracken – or whatever his name was – turned up in Panama City and offered Jimmie $5000 in gold nuggets if he would fly the prospector to a “mountain of gold” which he had discovered in Venezuela. According to Angel, he and McCracken took off at once for Caracas in Angel’s open cockpit war surplus Bristol Fighter. From there they followed the Orinoco River inland, then began to look for Auyantepui, or ‘Devil Mountain’. It was here that the prospector, led by Indians, had discovered large amounts of gold a few months earlier.

After a long and circuitous flight through the largely unexplored mountains, they found the 9,000 foot Devil Mountain, and Jimmie managed to land in a small clearing. For three days Angel helped the elderly prospector pan for gold, but then the approach of a huge tropical storm meant they had to leave in a hurry. When they reached civilisation, McCracken paid Jimmie and left, promising to get in touch when he wanted to get more gold.

Jimmie invested his $5000 into materials for a plane which he built himself. Throughout the 1920s he had many different flying jobs in various countries. Then in 1931 the old prospector contacted him to say he was dying, and that the mountain now belonged to Jimmie. Angel moved his bush operation to Venezuela and got work there, planning to see in his spare time if he could find Devil Mountain again. He spent much time flying through the mountains, but could not find the mountain of gold again, and few people believed that it existed.

However, during one of his innumerable scouting trips, Jimmie made the discovery which was to ensure him lasting fame. Flying past a massive mountain, he saw a huge waterfall, which he estimated to be more than 3,000 feet from top to bottom. He told two friends, who laughed, thinking it was another of what were believed to be Jimmie’s tall stories. So he took them there, and Angel Falls (as they were later named) were for real – 3,212 feet high, making them 20 times higher than Niagara Falls!

The Aftermath

The discovery of the Falls made Angel world famous for a while. But it did not distract him from his search for gold, and neither did his marriage in 1934 to Marie Sanders. He bought a new plane and kept looking. But in 1937 he crashed that aircraft, and finally he and Marie left Venezuela. Eventually he and his wife settled outside San Jose, California and raised a family. But old adventurers rarely give up, and in 1956, when he was nearly 60, Jimmie made one last attempt to find Devil Mountain. But while taxying his plane a freak wind tipped it over, and Jimmie suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and died in hospital.

However, the name of Jimmie Angel lives on, with Angel Falls being marvelled at by thousands of visitors to Venezuela every year.

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