Posted Sunday, October 2, 2011 --- 1:49 p.m.

KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) -- Family and friends of two Daily Inter Lake reporters who were killed in an airplane crash last summer have placed a stainless steel cross memorializing their friendship at the remote site on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

The Daily Inter Lake reports the group hiked through rugged, mountainous terrain on Sept. 24, bushwhacking 6 miles through thick timber to the crash site about 8 miles southwest of Perma.

A helicopter carried the 4-foot cross to the site. It lists the names and birth dates of Erika J. Hoefer of Beloit, Wis., and Melissa Weaver of Billings and reads: "Eternal Friends 6-27-2010," the date of the crash that also killed two Missoula men.

Hoefer's father, Bill, said the tribal council approved the placement of the cross and declared it a memorial site.

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