The Day the Music Died

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My grandma's farm is about 1/2 mile due east of the crash site. If you were to head west down her road and did not turn, you would run right into the fence row their plane crashed into, the fence row runs east to west. They moved into their farm in the early 80's, but lived in Mason City at the time of the crash, which is due east about 5 miles or so. She says she can remember the miles of lines of cars of people driving by the crash site.
 
Every summer, when there is a Rock and Roll weekend in Clear Lake, and they bring bands into play at The Surf, the ballroom where they played the night they died. There are long lines of people parked along the gravel road who walk down the fence line into the field and place flowers or trinkets at the spot of the crash. There is a small marker there to mark the spot where the plane crashed. People also visit in winter on the anniversary, although in smaller numbers. Trust me, they are not forgotten!
 
The next time I go up north to see my Uncle's on the family farm, I will try to make time to get some pictures taken of the marker and the area, although a empty field is not much to look at!
 
Beyond the Body Farm?...looking for this book to download...anyone knows were i can find the pdf?
 
I am heading up to northern Iowa tomorrow to visit family. If there weather is nice, I am planning on going out to the crash site. I will take some pictures of whatever is out there and post them when I get back.
 
We made out it to where the plane crashed. Here are some pics.
The first pic is of the view from the road. There used to be several other markers here through the years, but the markers were either stolen or vandalized.
2nd photo is of my niece. She got really interested in the story behind the crash, and I think was my sister was going to let her watch La Bamba to get a little more info.
3rd photo gives an idea how far you have to walk, I think it is somewhere between a 1/2 to 3/4 mile off of the road.
The last pics are various shots of some of the items left by people. The spot in the field is in a low spot that floods every spring. It is too bad that there was not something more fitting of these 3 such as a head stone or some kind of permanent marker. But I think everytime something has been placed on the site, it has been stolen.
 

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Here are a few more. Sorry about the size, I was not sure how to shrink them down so that they could be expanded.
 

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Whats with the misc trash? It looks like someone dumped the contents of their wallet there... business cards, Blockbuster card.. they dont look like tribute items?

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