At 1:40 am during a blizzard on January 18th, 1960, a World War II and Korean War marine veteran made a successful emergency landing of a DC-3 airplane a few yards north of this spot after the aircraft suffered an electrical failure shortly after an 8:30pm takeoff from St. Louis, MO. Without guidance instruments, the crew headed toward Minneapolis, MN but drifted off course, then spotted Carroll's water tower and courthouse clock through the snowstorm and flew low over the town several times searching for a place to land. With the windshield frosted over, his head out the side window, and fuel running low, the pilot brought the 95 foot wingspan aircraft down near this spot. The 23 people on board included the Minneapolis Lakers professional basketball team, which moved to Los Angeles the following year. The area was then a cornfield with unpicked corn still standing from a wet harvest season, prompting the pilot later to joke, "never try to pick corn with a DC-3." Carroll residents quickly came to help, offering assistance, cars, hot coffee, and warm rooms, and the pilot later said, "the people of Carroll were terrific" and "God must have been my co-pilot." The deep snow landing did not damage the sturdy DC-3, and within a few days its electrical system was repaired and Carroll residents bulldozed a makeshift airstrip through the snow and corn stalks so the plane could take off and return north to Minnesota, after which the Lakers continued using the converted war cargo plane.