Mason City, Iowa

Everything Mason City is known for

1 song mention this city 0 artists from here

Music in Mason City

Songs About Mason City

the interstate 35 waltz
garret t. capps & justin boyd
10%

Artists From Mason City

No artists from Mason City in the database yet.

Rivers & Roads in Song near Mason City

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Mason City.

Musical Heritage

The Surf Ballroom RoadyGoat

1959

The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, was the last venue Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. 'The Big Bopper' Richardson ever played: the Winter Dance Party show on February 2, 1959, hours before the plane crash that killed them. The Surf still operates today, largely unchanged — the same stage and maple dance floor — and hosts an annual Winter Dance Party tribute that draws fans from around the world.

9.5 mi away

The Day the Music Died — Crash Site RoadyGoat

1959

A few miles northwest of Clear Lake, Iowa, is the field where a Beechcraft Bonanza crashed in the early hours of February 3, 1959, killing Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. 'The Big Bopper' Richardson, and pilot Roger Peterson. A memorial marks the site: a stainless-steel sculpture of Buddy Holly's horn-rimmed glasses and a steel record, created by Wisconsin artist Ken Paquette and placed in 1988, reached by a half-mile walk along a fence line through the cornfield. Fans visit year-round, leaving guitar picks and flowers.

13.8 mi away

History of Mason City

Clear Lake: The Day the Music Died RoadyGoat

Clear Lake, Iowa, is where rock and roll suffered its first great loss. Tired of freezing tour buses, Holly chartered a small plane to the next stop. Minutes after takeoff in the early hours of February 3, the Beechcraft Bonanza went down in a snowy field a few miles northwest of town, killing all three stars and the 21-year-old pilot, Roger Peterson. Holly was 22, the Big Bopper 28, and Valens just 17. Don McLean later immortalized it in 'American Pie' as 'the day the music died,' and the Surf Ballroom still stands as a shrine to that lost night.

9.0 mi away

Surf Ballroom

1948

The Clear Lake dance hall where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper played their final concert on February 2, 1959.

9.0 mi away

Buddy Holly Crash Site

1959

The site north of Clear Lake where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. 'The Big Bopper' Richardson died in a plane crash on February 3, 1959.

10.3 mi away

Everything Near Mason City

8 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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