Stevie Ray Vaughan Crash Site — Alpine Valley, Wisconsin

In the early hours of 27 August 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan died when the Bell 206B helicopter in which he was travelling crashed into a ski slope at Alpine Valley Music Theatre near East Troy, Wisconsin. Vaughan had performed at the venue the previous evening as part of a concert with Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy, and Jimmie Vaughan — a gathering of blues guitarists that had been one of the most celebrated concerts of the summer. The helicopter, also carrying four members of Clapton's entourage, struck the slope in conditions of fog and low visibility almost immediately after takeoff. All five occupants were killed. Vaughan was 35 years old.

Vaughan had been sober for four years at the time of his death, having overcome severe alcohol and cocaine addictions that had threatened to end his career in the mid-1980s. His return from addiction had coincided with some of the most celebrated work of his career, and he had recently completed the In Step album, which won a Grammy. He was at the peak of his powers and widely regarded as the finest electric blues guitarist of his generation — a player whose command of the Texas blues tradition, learned from listening to records of Albert King, Freddie King, and Jimi Hendrix, had expanded the vocabulary of the blues without abandoning its emotional core.

A memorial to Vaughan stands near the crash site at Alpine Valley. He is also memorialised by a bronze statue on the Town Lake waterfront in Austin, Texas, unveiled in 1993, which has become the central Vaughan pilgrimage site. Alpine Valley Music Theatre continues to operate as an outdoor music venue. The crash site on the ski slope is accessible when the resort is open.