Behind the vision

  • Preserve the history of the event

  • Honor the memory of the passengers killed

  • Commemorate the bravery of Weld County citizens

  • Honor, inspire unsung heroes across the country

Tell the story of Flight 629

Preserve the history of the event, as it unfortunately was a first plane bombing for the USA.

It also changed the way the FBI did forensics, became a famous case study for training FBI agents, and influenced the aviation and court room systems.

Conrad Hopp can talk about supper that night, how he and his family sat down for a meal in the house where he grew up, on a farm east of Longmont. It was the first of November, 1955, and Hopp was 18, less than a year out of school. The family had spe
The explosion of United Air Lines Flight 629 over Longmont was one of the first attacks on a commercial airliner in the United States.
It was also the deadliest act of mass murder in Colorado history, killing all 44 people on board – a five-person crew and 39 passengers, including a 13-month-old boy.
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The DC-6B aircraft took off from Denver's Stapleton Airport on Nov. 1, 1955, at 6:52 p.m., bound for Portland, Ore. Eleven minutes later, according to the accident report from the Civil Aeronautics Board, an employee in the Stapleton control tower re
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The air traffic controllers touched base with every plane in the Stapleton airspace. Flight 629 was the only one not to respond.

Honor the memories

Create a meditative and esthetically beautiful place for others to receive their own healing from the loss of their loved ones or challenges in life.

Commemorate Weld County

Commemorate the bravery and courage of nearly 500 Weld County citizens who rallied on the fields that night and labored in freezing darkness throughout the night in the search and rescue.

The National Guard did not arrive until 48 hours later. They would have come from all the surrounding towns and farms around the beet fields (Rt. 66-Rt.13 – Colorado Blvd – Rt. 28 – Rt. 11). Farmers would have been the first on the fields, but teenagers, volunteer firemen, policemen, veterans with the American Legion, businesses, and others can be counted among the “first responders.”

A local Firestone resident and his wife, Conrad and Martha Hopp, are

still here today and remember all too well that traumatizing night. Just imagining the scene mirrors a Hollywood movie about a colossal tragedy.

“The tremendous response of the citizens of Weld County that fatal night has been swept under the rug in history. “

-Marian H. Poeppelmeyer
President, Co-Chair, Flight 629 and Unsung Heroes Across America Committee

Honoring unsung heroes across America

Together, we can use this historic tragic event to turn ashes into beauty for the communities involved, for the families of the passengers killed, and to inspire future generations to be the unsung heroes in their own communities across America.

The 44 victims of the United Air Lines Flight 629.