On February 3, 1959, Buddy Holly was in the middle of the tour from hell and would do anything to avoid another three hundred mile, overnight bus ride that already had inflicted frostbite on another band member.  That determination changed American popular music forever.

In mid-January, when the three band members got to NY, Allsup and Bunch checked into a hotel, but Waylon Jennings stayed with Buddy and Maria.  Time was of the essence and Buddy figured he needed as much time as possible to get Waylon up to speed.  It was also during this time period that Maria informed Buddy that she was pregnant, news they kept even from Buddy’s parents.

After the equipment was offloaded, Buddy collared the Surf Ballroom’s manager Carroll Anderson and asked him about chartering a plane.  Anderson knew of an associate named Jerry Dwyer, who operated a flying service out of a small regional airport in nearby Mason City.  Dwyer was out at a Chamber of Commerce meeting, but Anderson was able to get a hold of a pilot who worked for Dwyer, 21 year old Roger Peterson, who immediately agreed to fly the charter.  During an intermission before Dion and the Belmonts and Buddy Holly finished the show, word began to spread among the musicians that Buddy was going to fly.  Initially, there were two seats on board and Holly figured that he would offer them to his two band members, Jennings and Allsup.  But once the Big Bopper found out about the charter, he approached Jennings and asked if he could take his spot, as long as Buddy said it was okay.  Waylon Jennings knew that JP Richardson was quite sick and he was also a headliner so he agreed to give up his seat.  When Holly heard that Jennings had bailed on the flight, he figured Jennings was just too scared to fly.  Laughing at his bass guitarist, he said, “I hope your bus freezes up!,” Jennings responded without thinking.  “I hope your plane crashes,” a comment he would both keep private and feel guilty about for many subsequent years.

None of the nearby farmers noticed anything unusual until Cerro Gordo county sheriff deputies pulled up to the farm of Albert Juhl, who opened the gate to his property and watched as the two policeman rapidly headed west, quickly able to see the wreckage of the plane in the distance, lodged where it came to a stop against a barbed wire fence separating the Juhl farm from some adjoining properties.  As they pulled up to the scene, the body of the pilot was visible in the wreckage, and what was eventually identified as the bodies of Valens and Buddy Holly were within twenty feet of the plane’s remains.  JP Richardson was hurled from the crash over the barbed wire fence, lying forty feet away as small amounts of snow were swirled around the bodies and the wreckage,

Back in Mason City, Buddy Holly’s brother arrived to pick up his brother’s body and take it back for burial in Lubbock, visiting the crash site before the plane wreckage was hauled off to a hangar at the airport.

Valens was put on a train to Southern California.  By the weekend, funerals were conducted for all four of the deceased, family members and fans still in a state of shock.

The site of the crash is now a makeshift shrine and pilgrimage site despite the fact that it is situated on private property.  Alfred Juhl sold his land in the early sixties to another local family, the Nicholas’. Over time they have erected a simple memorial to the musicians, as well as Roger Peterson on the exact spot along the fence line where the plane came to a halt.  To guide those interested in finding the spot they have erected a sculpture on the highway resembling Buddy’s horn rimmed glasses, marking the path that leads to the site.  Every year they purposely do not plant corn or soybeans on the path or in the vicinity of the markers, encouraging visitors to access this remarkable spot at no charge.  And from the very first days after the crash, locals have noticed that people do come to the site, first just a trickle from the region but today, over sixty years later, by the thousands from all over the world,

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS