The next stop after Clear Lake was Fargo, North Dakota. Holly, Richardson, and Valens were in Clear Lake for the “Winter Dance Party” tour, which the Surf Ballroom website describes as a “complete catastrophe” in terms of its organization because shows were scattered hundreds of miles apart during a miserable Midwest winter. King, Conway Twitty, The Doobie Brothers, Martina McBride, Santana, ZZ Top, and scores more. Hours before the fatal crash, the trio had performed at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, a venue that has hosted some of music’s biggest acts. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, Ritchie Valens, and their 21-year-old pilot Roger Petersen of Clear Lake.

3, 1959, is known as “The Day the Music Died,” a reference to the fatal plane crash that claimed the lives of up and coming rock & roll artists Buddy Holly, J.P. Those losses on top of dozens of others have left a mark on the state.įor this edition of Iowa Weird, we’ll recap a few of those incidents: “The Day the Music Died” AP Photosįeb. Several famous people from the worlds of sports, politics, and, of course, music have lost their lives in the Hawkeye State during aviation-related tragedies.

Iowa has a rather infamous history of plane crashes.

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