The Buddy Holly Crash Site in Clear Lake, Iowa
2009 marks the 50th anniversary of The Day The Music Died
Aug 27, 2009
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper were performing on the Winter Dance Party Tour that also included Dion and the Belmonts and Frankie Sardo.
The tour had begun on January 23, 1959 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and was scheduled to continue until the final show in Springfield, Illinois on February 15. The tour had played at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa on the night of February 2.
Winter Dance Party Tour
The performers on the Winter Dance Party tour were traveling on a chartered bus from venue to venue. However, the heater on the bus was not working properly, so Holly chartered a plane to take him and his back-up singers, Tommy Allsup and Waylon Jennings, to the next stop of Moorhead, Minnesota.
Jennings gave his seat up to Richardson, who was suffering from the flu. Valens was also coming down with a cold, so Allsup and Valens flipped a coin for the last seat on the plane. Valens won the coin toss, claiming afterwards that he had never won anything before.
When Jennings gave up his seat, he and Holly bantered with each other, as they were prone to do. Holly joked with Jennings that he hoped the bus broke down; Jennings quipped that he hoped the plane crashed; a comment that would haunt Jennings for the rest of his life.
The Day The Music Died
In the snowy, early hours of February 3, as the plane was taking off from Mason City, Iowa, something went wrong. Because of the weather, the plane was flying at a low altitude. Upon surveying the crash scene, it was reported that there was no indication of an engine malfunction, the radio was tuned to the proper airport channel, and the landing gear had not been lowered.
According to a Civil Aeronautics Board report, the pilot, Roger Petersen, apparently became disoriented in the adverse flying conditions and had to fly solely on instrumentation. He had not been certified on some of the instruments used on that Beechcraft Bonanza and this may have contributed to the tragic crash.
The Show Must Go On
The Winter Dance Party Tour continued for the remainder of their scheduled performances. Fabian, Frankie Avalon, Bill Parsons and Jimmy Clanton all appeared, replacing Holly, Valens and the Big Bopper as headliners. Dion and the Belmonts and Frankie Sardo, part of the original line-up, continued with the tour. Buddy Holly's back-up band, The Crickets, also continued with the tour until the end.
Memorials and Tributes
The guitar-shaped plaque marking the plane crash site is located in an isolated corn field about five and a half miles northwest of Clear Lake, Iowa. The crash site memorial is accessible year-round, weather permitting.
Singer/songwriter Don McLean immortalized the day the music died in his 1971 classic song American Pie. Every year, near the anniversary of the crash, the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake hosts a tribute party on the first full weekend in February to honor the memories of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, three legendary performers.
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