B-52 Bomber Crash Site and Saint Peter’s Pearly Gates

Today started out sunny and warm.  I thought it was perfect weather to get out on a motorcycle ride to a couple of interesting locations I had on my “Ride-To” list.  One of the locations is the crash site of a B-52 Stratofortress bomber which occurred on September 16, 1958.  The plane was on a Cold War training mission, and it had taken off earlier in the day from Loring AFB in Maine.  The crew was made up of 6 flight crew members and 2 trainers.  They were flying at about 36,400 feet above the Twin Cities to simulate a nuclear bombing attack.  At about 8:40 PM, the plane had just finished it’s last mock bombing exercise of the night when the plane experienced a mechanical failure, and ultimately the tail of the plane broke off from the fuselage.  In just under 2 minutes, the plane fell to the ground from over 36,000 feet.  Four of the 8 crew had ejection seats and were able to eject, but only one of those four survived.  The other four were apparently unable to make it to an open hatch and parachute to safety, and they died in the crash.  The B-52 crashed on the farm of August Kahl, who just happened to be loading tomatoes into his farm truck with his 15 year old son, Loren, in preparation to be delivered to a market in South St. Paul the next morning.  August and Loren were engulfed in the fire from the explosion, as was their barn and their house where 6 other family members were at the time.  They all survived, though some were badly burned.  The tail of the plane was located 3 miles west of the Kahl farm. 

After visiting the memorial in Inver Grove Heights, I made my way towards St. Peter, where I had hoped to visit Saint Peter’s Pearly Gates, an attraction in St. Peter which included some pretty cool looking gates.  Unfortunately, the gates have been removed, and all that remains are the brick pillars that the gates had been attached to.    

Click on the images to see a larger view.             

Along the way to St. Peter.  A farm house and blue sky.

A quick stop in Heidelberg, just because I’ve never been here.

This is the location where Saint Peter’s Pearly Gates used to be.  Alas, they are gone.  I’ll just have to be content to see them when it’s time…

A photo of my trusty steel horse, Bob, in the Historic village of Ottawa.  I don’t know what this building was, and the fence was enough of a warning to let me know I shouldn’t try to hard to see it up close.

Here’s my Kwik Trip lunch - a chicken sandwich.  I do like Kwik Trip’s on my motorcycle rides!

Thanks for visiting my photo blog!