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STORIES FROM IOWA'S PAST
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Clear Lake crash kills rock superstars
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Clear Lake and the Surf Ballroom became instantaneous Meccas for music fans on Feb. 3, 1959 when a plane crash north of the city killed three pioneers of rock and roll. Early that morning, at approximately 1:05 AM Central Standard Time, a Beechcraft Bonanza airplane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, crashed in a farmer's field en route to a concert near Fargo, North Dakota, killing all three performers as well as the pilot, Roger Peterson.

The performers were in Clear Lake for "The Winter Dance Party" a tour that was set to cover 24 Midwest cities in three weeks. But an annoyance for the performers was the logistics: the tour bus traveled hundreds of miles between locales and often backtracked to pick up shows in nearby towns after a 200-mile side trip for a scheduled stop. In addition, the tour bus used to carry the musicians was ill-prepared for the weather; its heating system broke shortly after the tour began. Drummer Carl Bunch developed a severe case of frostbitten feet while on the bus and was taken to hospital. As he recovered, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens took turns with the drums.

The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa was never intended to be a stop on the tour, but promoters,
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hoping to fill an open date, called the manager of the ballroom at the time and offered him the show. He accepted and the date of the show was set for February 2.

When Buddy Holly arrived at the ballroom that evening after a 350 mile trip, he had had enough of the tour bus, and suggested to band members that, once the show was over, they try to charter a plane to get to the next stop on the tour, which was the Moorhead, Minnesota Armory, 370 miles away. Their destination would be Hector Airport in nearby Fargo, ND, since Moorhead did
not have an airport at the time.

Flight arrangements were made with Roger Peterson, a local pilot who worked for Dwyer Flying Service in Mason City. Each person was charged $36 per for a ride in the single engine plane, which would seat three passengers plus the pilot.

Richardson had developed a case of the flu during the tour – at the time erroneously thought to have been caused by riding on the unheated bus -- and asked one of Holly's bandmates, Waylon Jennings, for his seat on the plane; Jennings agreed to give up the seat. When Buddy heard about this, his replyto Waylon was "Well, I hope your old bus freezes up!", to which Waylon replied, "Well, I hope your plane crashes!" This exchange of words, though made in jest at the time, haunted Jennings for many years afterward.

Ritchie Valens had never flown in a small plane before, and asked Buddy's remaining bandmate on the plane, Tommy Allsup, for the seat. Tommy said "I'll flip ya for the remaining seat". Although movies suggest that the coin toss occurred at the airport, it actually happened at the Surf before the car left for the airport. A local deejay who was working the tossed the coin and Valens won a seat on the plane.

Dion DiMucci of Dion & The Belmonts, who was the fourth headliner on the tour, was approached to join the flight as well; however, the price of $36 was too much. Dion had heard his parents argue for years over the $36 rent for their apartment and could not bring himself to pay an entire month's rent for a short plane ride.


At approximately 1:00 AM Central Time on February 3, the plane took off from Mason City Municipal Airport. Around 1:05, Jerry Dwyer, owner of Dwyer Flying Service, could see the lights of the plane start to descend from the sky to the ground. At the time, he thought it was an optical illusion because of the curvature of the earth and the horizon.

The pilot, Roger Peterson, was expected to file his flight plan once the plane was airborne, but Peterson never called the tower. Repeated attempts by Dwyer to contact his pilot failed. By 3:30 AM, when the airport at Fargo had not heard from Peterson, Dwyer contacted authorities and reported the aircraft missing.

Around 9:15 in the morning, Dwyer took off in another small plane to fly Peterson's intended route. A short time later he spotted the wreckage in a cornfield (43°13′12″N, 93°23′0″W) about five miles northwest of the airport. The manager of the Surf Ballroom (who drove the performers to the airport, and also witnessed the plane taking off) made the positive identification of the performers.

The Bonanza was at a slight downward angle and banked to the right when it struck the ground at around 170 mph. The plane tumbled and skidded another 570 feet across the frozen landscape before the crumpled ball of wreckage piled against a wire fence at the edge of the property. The bodies of the three entertainers were thrown from the wreckage and lay nearby, while Peterson remained trapped inside. All four had died instantly from "gross trauma" to the brain, the County coroner declared.

Investigators came to the conclusion that the crash was due to a combination of poor weather conditions and pilot error.

The site of the crash is marked by a stainless steel guitar, built and installed in 1988 by Ken Paquette, a Wisconsin fan of the 1950s era. The monument includes a set of three records bearing the names of each of the three performers. The monument is located on private farmland, about one quarter of a mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, five miles north of Clear Lake.

The final performance at the Surf is marked each February with a rock and roll reunion featuring performers who knew or impersonate the three stars.