In the late hours of November 25, 1944, a C-47 Army cargo plane en route from Chicago to Minneapolis crashed into Blue Mound 400-500 feet north of this site after encountering a winter storm and, burdened by built up ice, attempting to return to Chicago. Four young Americans died serving their country in the Thanksgiving weekend accident: Captain Allen L. Swinton of Minneapolis, Minnesota; 2nd Lt. John A. Oppreicht of Lynxville, Wisconsin; Pfc. John B. Nolan of East Saint Louis, Illinois; and Pvt. Stanley A. Schlesinger of Richmond Hills, New York.