"The Day the Music Died" plane crash site

In the early hours of February 3, 1959, a Beechcraft Bonanza chartered from Dwyer's Flying Service departed Mason City Municipal Airport carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, and twenty-one-year-old pilot Roger Peterson. Shortly after takeoff the plane entered a snowstorm; Peterson, who was not rated for instrument flight, became disoriented and the aircraft went into a descending spiral. It struck a field on the Albert Juhl farm about five miles north of Clear Lake at around 1:00 in the morning, killing everyone on board instantly. Holly was twenty-two years old.

The sequence of events that placed those three musicians on that plane has been replayed endlessly. Holly chartered the flight because the tour bus had a broken heater and he was exhausted and unwell. Waylon Jennings, who had been playing bass in Holly's band, gave up his seat to the Big Bopper, who had the flu. Holly reportedly joked to Jennings as he left: "I hope your ol' bus freezes up." Jennings replied, "Well, I hope your plane crashes" — a remark he carried as a private weight for the rest of his life. Tommy Allsup lost his seat to Ritchie Valens in a coin toss. Valens had never flown in a small plane before and was reportedly nervous; Allsup landed heads, Valens called tails.

The crash site is a working farm field, accessible by walking out from the road across open ground. A memorial erected by fans and later formalised consists of several markers: a stainless steel record-shaped plaque, a pair of large glasses styled after Holly's, and smaller memorials for Valens, Richardson, and Peterson. Don McLean's "American Pie" immortalised February 3 as "the day the music died" — a phrase that has attached itself to the event so completely that it is now essentially the site's name. There is no entrance fee, no official visitor centre, no parking lot. You walk across a field, which feels appropriate.