Shanksville continues to draw visitors
It has been nearly four years since United Airlines Flight 93, piloted by terrorists, crashed into an open field in Shanksville. Each day since the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy, someone has made the trek through the rural community to the long farm road that leads to the area designated as the temporary memorial to the 40 passengers and crewmembers aboard the Boeing 757.
“There is never a day that goes by that someone doesn’t stop to pay their respects,” said Chuck Wagner, a member of the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Co. and ambassador at the site.
The ambassadors are a group of volunteers stationed at the temporary location to answer questions posed by local, national and international visitors and to ensure the site is respected by those that view the area. Wagner joined the organization in 2002.
The most frequent queries, said Wagner, are those about the flight path of the airliner and the size of the crash site area.
Many come and gaze across the field to a fenced area that encloses the crash site. Others, said Wagner, come to attach a note or trinket to a makeshift memorial wall to say “thank you” to those who sacrificed their lives to prevent the airliner from reaching its suspected destination – the U.S. Capitol.
“I’ve seen people just leave a light bulb because that’s all they had in their car to leave at the wall,” said Wagner. “One gentleman was here during the summer and was walking the perimeter; I could tell that he was disturbed by the tragedy.
“When he left, he stepped out of his sandals at the wall and returned to his car and left. …People just want to make a connection.”
The most memorable visitors to date, said Wagner, were a group of blind school children.
“They walked around and touched things and asked for great detail for the things that they could not see or touch,” he said. “When they left, they asked to touch the face of the ambassador that had taken the time to tell them about the memorial. …It was a very special moment.”
Barbara Black, National Memorial curator, said more than 20,000 items have been collected from the temporary site.
Each is numbered and cataloged and then stored at a Somerset site being used by memorial planners.
“We try to leave things (at the temporary memorial) for as long as possible,” she said. “However, as soon as we remove items, more are brought in.”
In many instances, said Black, visitors deposit very personal items, such as clothing or jewelry.
“We select our clothing and jewelry to reflect our personalities so when (the visitor) takes that off and leaves it there, it shows the significance of how connected they are to the Flight 93 heroes,” she said.
An estimated 6,000 people stop at the site each week, added Black.
The numbers are expected to triple when the permanent memorial is constructed.
In 2002, Congress passed the Flight 93 National Memorial Act to create a permanent memorial that will be managed by the National Park Service.
In September, the design for a permanent memorial will be submitted to Congress for final approval.
More than 1,000 design entries were submitted, with five finalists chosen to submit detailed plans for the 2,200-acre memorial and park.
The five include Leor Lovinger and Gilat Lovinger of Berkeley, Calif.; Ken Lum, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Laurel McSherry and Terry Surjan of Columbus, Ohio; Paul Murdoch of Los Angeles, Calif. and Frederick Steiner, Karen Lewis, Jason Kentner and E. Lynn Miller of Austin, Texas.
“It will be a tough job to choose one of the designs,” said Black. “Each one has something unique and creative.”
In addition to a 15-member panel composed of family members of the Flight 93 victims, design and art professionals and community and national leaders, the public will be able to offer its input when the plans for the five designs are revealed beginning July 1. The winning design will be announced in September.
Costs to construct the memorial and develop the park are estimated to be $30 million.
John Maslak, a businessman and longtime resident of the area Shanksville area, said he has reviewed the submissions and believes them to be too elaborate and costly.
“To spend $30 million over there is ridiculous,” he said. “It’s a cemetery, the final resting place for 40 individuals that sacrificed their lives to save others.
“They should put up 40 headstones and a nice little park and leave the rest of it alone.”
Resident Cindy Sheaffer has similar thoughts.
“A big monument is not going to tell the visitors what happened here,” she said. “How are they going to maintain something that large?”
Wagner, meanwhile, said the memorial should be tasteful and appropriate.
“It should be something suitable, something to tell the story,” he said.
For more information and photographs of the design submissions, visit the memorial Web site at www.flight93memorialproject.org.