9/11 Perhaps Our Country's Most Unforgettable Day
by Loren Flaugh
Whenever I listen to that classic 1970’s Rock and Roll tune sung by the British group Led Zeppelin titled Stairway to Heaven, my mind invariably wanders back to an early Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 morning when two hijacked passenger jets out of 4 slammed into the upper floors of the 110-story World Trade Center Towers (WTC).
The North Tower was struck at 8:46 a.m. followed 17 minutes later when the South Tower was struck at 9:03 a.m. The Pentagon was struck at 9:37 a.m. by a 3rd hijacked passenger jet that had become a lethal Kamikaze styled weapon of mass destruction and death. But, where was that 4th missing plane?
Immense clouds of thick black smoke and large plumes of orange fire instantly billowed from several floors due to the large volume of explosive jet fuel that must’ve sprayed everywhere. Meanwhile, with the elevators rendered useless, that left only those undamaged stairways for panicked office workers to scurry down and flee those doomed buildings.
Minutes later, as large numbers of New York City firefighters arrived, they were instructed to start climbing the crowded stairways 700’ to those upper floors being ravaged by fire. The scene on those crowded stairways must’ve been the epitome of what chaos means. In hindsight, any possibility of extinguishing those raging jet fuel fires 700’ above the city’s sidewalks to prevent a collapse was never a possibility.
Therefore, it was inevitable that those towering infernos were fated to collapse. The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m. followed 30 minutes later when the North Tower collapsed at 10:29 a.m., taking the lives of over 2,900 ordinary people including 343 dedicated New York City firefighters. Those firefighters must’ve known they weren’t going to live to see their day’s end or their families ever again.
What I often contemplate is did those really experienced firefighters know they were probably climbing the Stairways to Heaven, as the 1970’s Led Zeppelin song implies? Is this the perfect analogy?
Friday, Sept. 11th will mark the 25th anniversary of a purely evil attack at the WTC buildings. Coincidentally, that next day Saturday, Sept. 12th will be the opening day for the 9-day run of the 2026 Clay County Fair (CCF). Separated by many hundreds of miles, these two events are irreversibly intertwined and never to reappear again. Not very often have these two events aligned on consecutive days like they will next September.
Looking back at the 2001 Clay County Fair
On that very same day that 2,997 ordinary office worker staff were crushed to death 22,128 carefree fairgoers began taking in the sights, sounds and delicious foods at the World’s Greatest County Fair. However, those joyous times changed dramatically as early Tuesday morning arrived. I wonder how many fairgoers may have felt uneasy by having fun at the CCF while knowing so many in New York City were suffering or dead.
Former CCF GM/CEO Jeremy Parsons, now the current CEO/Manager at the Iowa State Fair, commented recently via email, “The CCF and the events of 9/11 will always be intertwined, that’s for sure. I can remember in 2021 when we brought the 9/11 Mobile Exhibit to the CCF complete with several firefighters who served that day. Such a somber and moving experience.”
Created in the aftermath of the 9/11 event, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation oversees the operation and scheduling of the 9/11 Mobile Exhibit and the 9/11 Speakers Bureau. Speakers include former New York City or Fire Department officials who were at the WTC attacks on 9/11. Funding for housing veterans crippled in combat while on active duty is another mission.
Parsons also reflected, “My predecessor, Phil Hurst, told me stories of what they did that day and the struggle they had to get grandstand concerts here because the artists were stuck in airports with no flights in or out.”
To wit, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) hastily grounded all air traffic nationwide after the two hijacked passenger jets struck the WTC Towers. Flights coming in from overseas were hurriedly diverted to airports in other nearby countries.
Longtime CCF Board of Directors member & KICD Farm Director Dan Skelton also noted how the first ever FAA decision to ground all commercial are traffic nationwide had caused significant problems for the 2001 CCF. Skelton said via email, “At that time, there was still a lot of uncertainty about how many attacks would take place and where they would happen. If I recall correctly, we had trouble getting artists to Spencer because the air space was closed down.”
Indeed, a 4th highjacked passenger plane loitered in the air until brave passengers reclaimed the cockpit from the Arab hijackers. However, that ill-fated plane crashed in rural southern Pennsylvania killing everyone onboard.
A Spencer Daily Reporter newspaper article written at week’s end has a headline that read, “Tonight’s fair grandstand headliners unable to attend” noted how much suspended air travel was causing issues nationwide. Editor Paula Buenger’s opening lead paragraph reads, “The effect of Tuesday’s terrorist attacks on the U.S. have reached as far as the Clay County Fair."
Buenger’s reporting focussed on how much difficulty major artists and musical groups were facing when struggling to get to Spencer for performances. Some artists were even resorting to taking bus trips. One Los Angeles artist, Christian singer Carmen, even canceled his scheduled CCF concert.
Buenger used a graph to report the daily attendance figures from Saturday, Sept. 8th through Thursday, Sept. 13th. Tuesday, Sept. 11th, the day of the 9/11 event, recorded a 21,228-attendance figure.
Buenger again reported the difficulty entertainers were facing. Well known singer Jo Dee Messina was to perform on Saturday night. “Jo Dee’s representatives actually contacted us to make sure we were going ahead with the show,” Phil Hurst reported to Buenger. “She’s coming by bus and will leave from Spencer to go to Shakopee, Minn.”
Buengner concluded her news story by reporting, “The Statler Brothers made the trip to Spencer Thursday night by bus entertaining a near capacity crowd in front of the grandstand.”
A 40-Foot-Tall Memorial to All Firefighters
It seems so easy for me---and I often wonder why---to envision an artistically talented ornamental design and welding fabrication company assembling a free-standing, full-scale stainless-steel structure that replicates 3 or 4 floors of a high-rise office stairway. Placed on the stairway would be a long line of dedicated firefighter images shown climbing the stairways 700’ to fight the raging fires. Perhaps the names of some actual firefighters who climbed the stairs can be seen on their uniforms. In the same setting, life like images of panicked office workers can be seen hurrying down the seemingly endless steps to flee the doomed building.
Because of how much the 9/11 attack is so intertwined with the CCF year after year, as Jeremy Parsons notes, it seems fitting for the CCF to adopt a 9/11 theme during the 2026 CCF this September 12th on opening day as the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 WTC attack and the nearly 3,000 ordinary human beings who perished are being remembered.