A Plane Crash Claimed Wellstone and Seven Others, October 25 2002, Near Eveleth
Sunday marked the 24th anniversary of a plane crash that killed Senator Paul Wellstone, Sheila Wellstone, their daughter Marcia, along with three staff members and two pilots. The plane crashed near the Eveleth Airport in freezing rain and fog.
The day always leaves me a little sad as I remember when I was called out to the scene of a possible plane crash in the woods near Eveleth and the shock I felt when Wellstone’s Northeast Minnesota office director, in tears, confirmed that the senator had been killed.
The days that followed were a swirl of emotions covering what had turned into a major national news story, complete with an FBI investigation and the NTSB accident team conducting the accident reconstruction, along with memorial services for a politician who had been a friend.
In this job I’ve met dozens of politicians on the local, state, and national levels; some I liked, some I didn’t, but Wellstone, who I met when I moved to the Range in 1999, was different. Most politicians interact with you as a journalist in a fairly predictable way. A polite, sometimes friendly, sometimes business attitude, but Wellstone connected in a way different from most.
As a US Senator, Wellstone really didn’t have any reason to remember me, a local photographer from a rural part of the state, much less take time to find out about me, but he did. At parades, he would see me in the crowd and make a point of running over to shake my hand and thank me for being there, and at a press conference or public event he would stop to ask my kids were doing, who he remembered by name and make a joke or two about my ever-present Chicago Cubs cap.
A couple of weeks before the crash, I covered Wellstone’s campaign stop in Eveleth for a story the New York Times was doing on the Minnesota campaign, and part of the coverage was a lunch he was having with local officials. As a photojournalist, it’s expected that I’d be in the background, observing and covering the meeting, but Wellstone insisted I take a seat at the table and have lunch instead.
I stopped by the memorial park near the plane crash site Monday afternoon. I’ve been there before, and like always, it feels a bit heavy walking through the woods and reading the boards placed along the walking trail and spending time on the boardwalk overlooking the bog where the plane went down. The woods just feel a little different, quieter than anywhere else.
People can agree or disagree with Wellstone’s politics, but either way, Minnesota lost someone who actually cared for the people he represented, in a way that was really different than most in elected office.
Next year is the 25th anniversary, and I’m pretty sure I’ll find myself back walking through the quiet woods.
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