Enlarge By Rich Pedroncelli, AP A hiker found a pilot's license and a torn $100 bill that investigators believe belonged to adventurer Steve Fossett, who vanished during a solo flight more than a year ago. Steve Fossett AP file photo Enlarge Handouts via AP Searchers found the wreckage of Steve Fossett's plane in California's rugged Sierra Nevada just over a year after the millionaire vanished. Enlarge By Rich Pedr Preston Morrow, here with his dog Kona, discovered some of missing millionaire Steve Fossett's belongings while hiking off regular trails near Mammoth Lakes, Calif. Fossett joins the many mysteries of the Sierras The mystery of Steve Fossett is most likely solved, but the gray granite peaks of the Sierra Nevada may never give up the secrets they hold of missing aviators and long ago wrecked planes. Searchers spotted Fossett's battered single-engine plane Wednesday night, more than a year after he took off from a Nevada ranch. Wreckage indicated a high-speed impact at about 10,000 feet. Small pieces of human remains were found with the wreckage, said National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker. The location — far from the main search areas farther north — didn't surprise the amateur sleuths who spend years in search of missing planes in these mountains. "The Sierra probably holds the majority of the airplanes that weren't found for a while due to its remoteness and its ruggedness," says Craig Fuller, who studies plane crashes. He runs a website called Aviation Archaeological Investigation and Research. ON DEADLINE: Latest on search for Fossett Unforgiving terrain The mountain range, which runs up California's eastern side and has the highest peak in the continental U.S., has been the backdrop of many aviation mysteries. An Air Force pilot who bailed out of his jet in 1957 survived for weeks in the backcountry only to be unjustly accused of faking his story after he was rescued. A father spent 14 years combing the mountains in search of the bomber that his son had co-piloted. A World War II fighter plane crashed within a mile of where the pilot parachuted to safety in 1941 but has never been found despite dozens of searches. "When you are looking for an airplane like Fossett's, it's not looking for a needle in one haystack. It's like looking for a needle in many haystacks," says G. Pat Macha, a retired high school teacher who has spent 35 years searching for plane wrecks. Fossett, 63 when he died, left a ranch in Nevada owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton on the morning of Sept. 3, 2007, for a flight in a Bellanca Super Decathlon propeller plane. He was looking for dry lake beds on which to try to break the land speed record in a rocket-propelled car. He never filed a flight plan, which was routine for small private planes in that remote section of Nevada. So it's not known how he ended up flying about 90 miles south of the ranch over the pine forests and massive rock formations of the Sierras. Fossett, an adventurer inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, was an experienced pilot. But his flight over the Sierras had risks. "We do have a higher number of accidents because the terrain is less forgiving," said Bruce Landsberg, executive director of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's Air Safety Foundation. At 10,000 feet, his plane would have been short on power, Landsberg said. According to local pilots, that section of the Sierras is known for its rough winds. A downdraft could easily have pushed the plane down faster than it was capable of climbing, Landsberg said. Weather reports that day reported gusty winds. Mountains are 'brutal' Lt. David Steeves made it out of the Sierra alive after his T-33 trainer jet crashed. He lived for 54 days in the wilderness after ejecting and making his way to an unoccupied cabin. Soon after his rescue, people began to doubt his story. Where was the wreck, they asked. Steeves died in 1965 in a small-plane crash in Idaho. It wasn't until 1977 that Boy Scouts found the canopy of his jet. To this day, the wreckage has never been located, Macha said. In 1943, a B-24 bomber crashed in the mountains. Co-pilot 2nd Lt. Robert Hester's father, Clinton, was determined to find the plane. "He basically spent every summer that he was physically able hiking in the Sierras looking for his son," Fuller said. In 1960, a year after Clinton Hester died, a survey team found the bomber in a remote lake. It's now known as Hester Lake. Lt. Leonard C. Lydon parachuted to safety in 1941 after his Army fighter squadron got lost over the mountains. His P-40 fell within a mile of where he landed in the remote Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, Macha says. "To this day, nobody has been able to come up with (the plane)," he says. "But when you see the geography, it is brutal and mind boggling." Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more