Finding Minnesota: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens & the Big Bopper live on in Montevideo

MONTEVIDEO, Minn. -- In a western Minnesota town, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper live on, as one of their last concerts ever still strikes a chord.

In the late 1950s, there were no bigger names in music than Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens. So when the teen idols announced they were coming to Montevideo as part of their Winter Dance tour, Jane Ellefson was gearing up.

"Oh, I like rock 'n' roll, you betcha," Ellefson said. 

The date was January 27, 1959. The stars performed at the Fiesta Ballroom in Montevideo, and Ellefson brought her camera, something teenagers didn't always have back then. The photos she captured that memorable night became the envy of rock 'n' roll fans across the country -- black-and-white closeups of the rock legends.  

"I just remember standing right up front, just in awe. It was great," she said. 

But it was the encore after the concert that the town remembers. The musicians partied in the Fiesta City. They had dinner at a local café, where Jane got to meet Holly himself.

"He was just like you and me, easy to talk to," Ellefson said. 

Valens was even spotted bowling at Melody Lanes. The crew stayed at the Hunt Hotel, which still stands. 

"Here they (were), the most popular group of musicians in the country, and what do they do after a concert? They go bowling in Montevideo," Dave Lauritsen said.

Lauritsen, my father, was 11 in 1959, but he remembers what that concert meant to the town. WCCO caught up with him where the Fiesta Ballroom once stood.

"I would say if Montevideo wasn't on the map at that point, it certainly was after that concert," he said. 

Rock 'n' roll historian Sevan Garabedian agrees. He's a Canadian who fell in love with American music.

"Incredible. This isn't like Milwaukee or St. Paul or one of the bigger cities," Garabedian said.   

He lives in Montreal, but he's done decades of research on the final tour. He believes Montevideo was the smallest town they played in, but the Fiesta was packed.

"Ritchie was 17 years old. Half the people in the audience who were older than him," he said. "There was an impromptu party at a girl's house, named Diane Bagus. This has been verified by many people. And a couple of the artists went there, and they signed the wall."

Each year, Garabedian visits Clear Lake, Iowa, where the musicians died in that infamous plane crash, six days after they played in Montevideo. Their teenage fans are now in their 80s.

"I couldn't believe it. Everybody in school was crying, the guys and the gals," Ellefson said.

"A lot of them were blessed to have seen Buddy and Ritchie and the Bopper a few days before they died, and it was the greatest night of their life. And a few days later it was the worst experiences they had in their short life up til that point," Garabedian said. 

The tragedy inspired Don McLean to write his famous song "American Pie."

Garabedian has visited most of the cities the musicians toured, including Montevideo, one of the last small towns to be touched by rock 'n' roll. The businesses and people have changed, but the memories remain.

"Never again would you be able to really have that one on one," Garabedian said. "It was a loss of innocence. And you just listen to the song 'American Pie,' it really talks about how important that era was."

Waylon Jennings played bass guitar for Buddy Holly that night. Garabedian has researched Buddy Holly for years, and says the musician influenced the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, who watched him perform on that Winter Dance tour. Like the photos Ellefson has, Garabedian is looking for anyone who might be able to share them with him. If you have some, you can email him here.