The airplane was a small four-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza, serial number N3794N. It was painted red, with white and black trim. The pilot�s name was Roger Peterson, an inexperienced twenty-one year old that was not qualified to fly on instruments (sound familiar?). The weather had been clear on the way from the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, to the Mason City Airport. The National Weather Service had issued a storm warning, but it had not been received by the pilot or by Jerry Dwyer, the owner of the Dwyer Flying Service.


The tour had been called "The Winter Dance Party." Concert tours were profitable, and Buddy Holly needed the money. He was recently married with a child on the way. Buddy had broken up with his group, the Crickets, and had left his record company. With him on the tour was former Cricket Tommy Allsup, a friend from his hometown of Lubbock, Texas, Waylon Jennings, and Dion and the Belmonts. The headliners were Buddy, Ritchie and the Big Bopper. It was a grueling tour of one-night stands in the middle of winter in the cold and snowy American Midwest. The bus kept breaking down and had no heat. One member of the group, drummer Carl Brunch, suffered frostbite. Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper caught colds. Their last concert was at the Surf Ballroom, on Monday the Second of February.

Buddy was tired of the malfunctioning bus and did not want to take it to the next stop on the tour, Moorhead, Minnesota, several hundred miles away. He arranged to charter a plane to Fargo, North Dakota, the nearest airport to Moorhead. Two other members of the group could go with him at $36 per person. Dion balked at paying the tab. Waylon Jennings wanted to fly with Buddy, but exchanged his seat with J.P. Richardson because he had a cold. Tommy Alsup was included in the group, but Ritchie Valens offered to flip him for the seat since he was ill. The local host of the "Winter Dance Party," Bob Hale, flipped the coin. Ritchie called "Heads." and won the toss. Years later, Tommy Alsup would open a dance club named "The Head�s Up Saloon" to commemorate this life-saving coin toss.

Buddy used the payphone in the lobby to call his wife, and Ritchie used it to call his brother. Both complained about the miserable conditions of the tour, and spoke of future plans.

Before departure, Buddy teased his friend from Texas, Waylon Jennings, because he wasn't joining him in the plane. Buddy said, "Well, you're not going on that plane with me tonight?" Jennings replied, "No." Buddy's reply was, "Well, I hope your old bus freezes up again." Jennings snapped back, "Well, hell, I hope your old plane crashes." Both events occurred that night.

At about 1:00 am in February 3, 1959, the plane carrying three of rock music's brightest stars took off into a blinding snow storm and crashed into Albert Juhl�s corn field about fifteen miles northwest of Mason City in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa.

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Jiles P. Richardson, and pilot Roger Peterson were dead.

When Jerry Dwyer did not receive news of the safe landing of the plane in Fargo, North Dakota, he became concerned and decided to mount a search. The next morning was foggy. This prevented him from flying until about 9:00 am. He finally took off along the same flight path as the "American Pie" and found the wreckage within five minutes. It had gone unnoticed for eight hours along a fence in that snow-covered field, about a quarter mile from the nearest country road.

By 11:15, the coroner, Dr. Ralph E. Smiley, had arrived. As did the press, and inevitable spectators. Here is a brief synopsis of the wreckage:

"The wreckage lay about 1/2 mile west from the farm home of the Albert and Delbert Juhl. The main part of the plane lay against the barbed wire fence at the north end of the stubble fields in which it came to earth. It had skidded and/or rolled approximately 570 feet from point of impact directed northwesterly. The shape of the mass of wreckage approximated a ball with one wing sticking up diagonally from one side. The body of Roger Peterson was enclosed by wreckage with only the legs visible sticking upwards. Richard Valenzuela's body was south, lying prone, head directed south 17 feet from the wreckage. Charles Holley's body, also in the prone position, was lying southwest, head directed southwest, 17 feet from the wreckage. J.P. Richardson's body, lying partly prone and partly on the right side, was northwest of the wreckage, head directed south 40 feet from the wreckage, across the fence in a cornfield. Fine snow fell lightly after the crash had drifted slightly about the bodies and wreckage. Some parts of each body had been frozen by ten hours' exposure in temperature reported to have been near 18 degrees during that time.

Amongst the wreckage was a large brown leather suitcase with one catch open, lay near one leg of Charles Holley, and about 8 feet north of the same body lay a travel case with brown leather ends, and sides of a light plaid color. A Deputy Sheriff inspecting the ground near the wreckage discovered a billfold containing the name of Tommy Douglas Allsup and a leather pocket case marked with the name "Ritchie Valens."

The three bodies on the ground were removed. Peterson's body was removed after permission was granted by the inspector for the Civil Aeronautics Board and Federal Aviation Agency. Deputy Sheriffs Wm. McGill and Lowell Sandquist used metal cutting tools to open a space in the wreckage.

Buddy had $193.00 on him, and unless I'm wrong, the coroner removed $11.65 of it, for his own fees. Tacky, or what? Buddy also had a pair of cuff links and the top portion of a ballpoint pen on him.

Peterson was taken to the Wilcox Funeral Home, and Richardson was taken to the Ward Funeral Home. No word on where the others were taken, specifically.

On Friday, Feb. 6, 1959, Roger Peterson was buried in the Buena Vista Memorial Cemetery, in his hometown of Alta. Richardson's wake was held in the Broussard's Funeral Home, in Beaumont, and he was buried in Beaumont, Texas. Private soldier Elvis Presley and Colonel Tom Parker sent yellow roses to his funeral.

On Saturday the 7th, Ritchie Valens' body was taken from the Noble Chapel Funeral Home in the San Fernando Valley, to San Fernando Mission Cemetery. His body was driven in a copper colored hearse.

Buddy was also buried on the 7th. Services were held in Lubbock, Texas, at the Tabernacle Baptist Church. Over a thousand mourners attended the service, but his widow did not. She later lost the baby.

See their graves, and the memorial erected at the Surf Ballroom

The "Winter Dance Party" tour continued. An unknown singer named Bobby Vee was asked to open the concert in Moorhead, Minnesota. Two other new rock singers, Fabian and Paul Anka, were brought in to replace the recently deceased singers. The show must go on, regardless of circumstances, and it did.

That spring, after the thaw, the Juhl's planted hay in the field where the plane crashed. They found lots of plane parts, a few body parts, and a few personal items, that were placed in an envelope in the county courthouse. Tourists continued to hound them, and they were more than happy to take them out to the crash site. Some of the lucky few were given souvenir plane pieces.

Life is fragile, fate is fickle. We can only imagine what might have been and continue to listen to the music. The music makers suffered a terrible tragedy on that cold snowy night in rural Iowa, but their music has made them immortal.

Don McLean wrote a hugely famous song that reached #1 in 1972, called "American Pie," dedicated to the victims of that plane crash.

Map of crash site