About this city
Clear Lake is a historic, highly iconic resort city situated beautifully on the eastern shores of a massive 3,600-acre natural spring-fed glacial lake in northern Iowa. Founded in 1856, the town quickly blossomed into a premier Midwestern summer lakeside destination, lined with historic wooden yacht clubs, sandy beaches, and luxury summer cottages. Clear Lake holds an immortal, bittersweet place in global rock-and-roll music history as the tragic site of music legend Buddy Holly's final concert and subsequent plane crash in 1959.
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Practical Tourism Metadata
Suggested stay: 1–3 days
Catch a concert or tour the hallowed, historic Surf Ballroom, take a nostalgic narrated cruise aboard the Lady of the Lake paddlewheeler, and pay respects at the Buddy Holly Crash Site Monument.
