SPICER -- Spicer is setting up a fund for a memorial that is planned for the National Guard airplane that was recovered last year from Green Lake.
The Spicer City Council voted Wednesday to set up a separate fund for donations for a memorial building the city would like to construct on the corner of state Highway 23 and Kandiyohi County Road 10.
The airplane -- a Cessna L-19 "Birddog" -- crashed into Green Lake in 1958. The 36-year-old pilot, Capt. Richard P. Carey of Willmar, was killed. He left behind a wife and seven children.
Carey's body was recovered about two weeks after the crash, but the plane wasn't found until a couple years ago. A fisherman discovered the plane July 3, 2004, with an underwater camera. Last August, the plane was brought up from the lake.
The Spicer American Legion and the city of Spicer have been given permission from the federal General Services Administration to place the plane on display.
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The city has asked the Minnesota Department of Transportation to turn back land at the northwest corner of the Highway 23 and County Road 10 intersection to the city.
Plans are to construct a building there that would house the airplane and historical information, but the details haven't been finalized, said Jean Spaulding, city Economic Development Authority director.
The lot is too small and too oddly-shaped to make it viable for commercial use, Spaulding said.
"I can't necessarily say it's an unbuildable lot, but it's small," Spaulding said.
Spaulding suggested to the council Wednesday that a board of directors with members from the city, Legion, parks, tourism, Kandiyohi County Historical Society and the state Department of Natural Resources be appointed to oversee the fund and the project. The memorial would be located near the Glacial Lakes State Trail.
It's not known how much money would need to be raised for the project, Spaulding said. The city will be applying for grant money as the project moves forward, she said.
As a part of establishing the fund, the council included a stipulation that if the project doesn't go forward the money would be turned back to the Legion.
The airplane is being refurbished through the Experimental Aircraft Association. Preliminary plans are to have it refurbished by sometime in 2007 and fly it again before it's stored at the memorial, Spaulding said.
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The plane was one of Green Lake's mysteries. Several people had searched for it over the years and one man claimed to have found it in 1996.
On the night of the crash, Carey was flying to the Willmar airfield from Rochester in dense fog, according to West Central Tribune archives. He radioed at 12:38 a.m. Oct. 15, 1958, that he had three minutes of fuel left and had "hit something," according to archives.
