June 23 - 26, 2009
Unknown nm/Unknown sm
Start: Denver, CO
Terminus: Atlantic, IA
Check the weather at each stop along the route
Registration opens in January!
Mason City, IA (KMCW)
Why not give Iowa a try? Such was the question posed by Meredith Willson, composer of the beloved Broadway classic “The Music Man,” who based River City on his hometown of Mason City. Located a few miles from beautiful Clear Lake in north central Iowa, the town was originally known as Shibboleth, then Masonic Grove and later Masonville. The community was incorporated as Mason City around 1870, and within a few decades had a thriving cement industry that continues to this day, thanks to nearby limestone and clay deposits. Mason City was also a center of brick and tile production in the early years of the 20th century.
Today, with a population of 30,000, Mason City has a wealth of historic sites and points of interest. Music Man Square celebrates Meredith Willson’s life and music with a 1912 streetscape, complete with ice cream parlor/soda fountain, and an interactive museum. The city boasts two buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright: the Stockman House, designed in the Prairie School style and constructed in 1908, and the Park Inn Hotel and adjoining City National Bank, circa 1910. The Charles H. MacNider Museum displays puppets, marionettes and props created and collected by world-famous puppeteer Bil Baird, a graduate of Mason City High School. These include the marionettes used in the movie “The Sound of Music.”
Sadly, Mason City played another part in music history: The Day the Music Died. On Feb. 3, 1959, Buddy Holly performed at the Surf Ballroom in nearby Clear Lake. Then he, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, known as The Big Bopper, boarded a plane at the Mason City Airport and took off in an ice storm. The plane crashed in a field a short distance away. The site is marked by a small memorial, as well as four specially planted trees – one each for the three rock-and-rollers and the pilot.
Mason City Municipal Airport was dedicated in 1927 in a ceremony attended by Charles Lindbergh soon after his historic transatlantic flight. At the entrance is the Kinney Pioneer Museum, featuring a pioneer village with a one-room schoolhouse, log cabin and blacksmith shop; fossils; Indian artifacts and utensils; historic furniture and clothing; a Colby Car, the only one surviving of 900 made in Mason City between 1911 and 1914; a replica 1859 covered wagon; a 1912 blacksmith shop, and printing presses from the 1800s.
The airport is an nontowered field, elevation 1213. It has two asphalt runways: 18-36, 6,501x150 feet, and 12-39, 5,502x150 feet. Pattern altitude is 2,013 feet. Commuter flights are provided by Mesaba-Northwest Airlink; for general aviation, there’s North Iowa Air Service, telephone 641-424-9366.
Chamber of Commerce
http://www.masoncityia.com/
FBOs
North Iowa Air Service, telephone 641-424-9366
Other Connections of Interest
Stockman House Museum http://www.stockmanhouse.org/
Park Inn Hotel http://www.wrightonthepark.org/
Frank Lloyd Wright http://www.wrightiniowa.com/
Charles H. MacNider Art Museum http://www.macniderart.org/
Today, with a population of 30,000, Mason City has a wealth of historic sites and points of interest. Music Man Square celebrates Meredith Willson’s life and music with a 1912 streetscape, complete with ice cream parlor/soda fountain, and an interactive museum. The city boasts two buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright: the Stockman House, designed in the Prairie School style and constructed in 1908, and the Park Inn Hotel and adjoining City National Bank, circa 1910. The Charles H. MacNider Museum displays puppets, marionettes and props created and collected by world-famous puppeteer Bil Baird, a graduate of Mason City High School. These include the marionettes used in the movie “The Sound of Music.”
Sadly, Mason City played another part in music history: The Day the Music Died. On Feb. 3, 1959, Buddy Holly performed at the Surf Ballroom in nearby Clear Lake. Then he, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, known as The Big Bopper, boarded a plane at the Mason City Airport and took off in an ice storm. The plane crashed in a field a short distance away. The site is marked by a small memorial, as well as four specially planted trees – one each for the three rock-and-rollers and the pilot.
Mason City Municipal Airport was dedicated in 1927 in a ceremony attended by Charles Lindbergh soon after his historic transatlantic flight. At the entrance is the Kinney Pioneer Museum, featuring a pioneer village with a one-room schoolhouse, log cabin and blacksmith shop; fossils; Indian artifacts and utensils; historic furniture and clothing; a Colby Car, the only one surviving of 900 made in Mason City between 1911 and 1914; a replica 1859 covered wagon; a 1912 blacksmith shop, and printing presses from the 1800s.
The airport is an nontowered field, elevation 1213. It has two asphalt runways: 18-36, 6,501x150 feet, and 12-39, 5,502x150 feet. Pattern altitude is 2,013 feet. Commuter flights are provided by Mesaba-Northwest Airlink; for general aviation, there’s North Iowa Air Service, telephone 641-424-9366.
Chamber of Commerce
http://www.masoncityia.com/
FBOs
North Iowa Air Service, telephone 641-424-9366
Other Connections of Interest
Stockman House Museum http://www.stockmanhouse.org/
Park Inn Hotel http://www.wrightonthepark.org/
Frank Lloyd Wright http://www.wrightiniowa.com/
Charles H. MacNider Art Museum http://www.macniderart.org/