cordwainer,
This project is like an electronic archeological dig. It comes with a big chunk of emotional load, obviously, and I get a lot of free psychoanalysis out of that. But mostly it's a puzzle.
I've talked with the Chicago & Northwestern historical museum. They have all the archives but nothing to the level of detail I need. If you've read the missing-engine puzzle you can see that they might have provided a key bit of evidence in their job ticket journal.
I'd be very interested in topo maps for the area as of that date, if for nothing more than locating our photographer. Topo maps would give power and phone lines. Maps from 57 and 63 would be close enough to be useful. A man who was a pastor at a church near the crash site told me that the area was virtually untouched for many years after the crash, and the scattered homes visible in the panorama suggest it was pretty stable for some years before. The whole area is now warehouses. When I was recreating the flight with a simulator, I kept crashing into warehouses. By the way, my videos are on Youtube and can be found searching for N137US.