Grant Township, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa Grant Township, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa Grant Township is one of 16 townships in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 354. Grant Township was the site of the airplane crash north of the city of Clear Lake, in which rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, along with their pilot Roger A. Peterson, were killed on February 3, 1959. The site is located in the extreme eastern part of the township, near its border with Lincoln Township. Grant Township covers an area of and contains no
Buddy Holly the Big Bopper's watch, a lighter, two pairs of dice and part of another watch, and misplaced when the county moved courthouses. The glasses, missing their lenses, were returned to Maria Elena a year later, after a legal contest over them with his parents. They are now on display at the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, Texas. Buddy Holly left behind dozens of unfinished recordings: solo transcriptions of his new compositions; informal jam sessions with bandmates; or tapes demonstrating songs intended for other artists. The most recent recordings, made in Holly's apartment in late 1958, were his last six original