Curator Running Out Of Space For Artifacts

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. -- From buttons to laminated poems to painted rocks to uniforms, curators in Somerset County have vowed to log every one of the tributes and mementos left to honor the 40 passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93.

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But with more than 10,000 items collected so far, the Somerset County Historical and Genealogical Society will have to find a larger facility to store them.

"We are going to start having to move some things to a secure storage area," said Barbara Black, the society's curator. "There's really no other room here on site."

Officials will begin looking for a new space within a month.

"I don't think I could have predicted at that time that the collection would grow -- that people would continue to bring things," Black said.

People have come from around the country to leave trinkets and memorabilia in the remote field, 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, where the hijacked plane crashed.

Somerset County officials plan to eventually incorporate all the items into a national memorial that will be administered by the National Park Service. A design for the memorial is to be presented to Congress within three years. It is to be built at the crash site.

"The idea is, this is all part of the historical significance. These are artifacts, and they should be preserved," said Somerset Commissioner Jim Marker.

The historical and genealogical society recently received a $30,000 grant from the National Park Service to support efforts to record the oral histories of resident and emergency workers.

Around the anniversary of the crash, several thousand people visited the crash site, leaving hundreds more items.

The flight, which was headed from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco, was the only one of four flights hijacked Sept. 11, 2001, that did not take a life on the ground. Investigators believe it was headed toward a target in Washington when it turned east near Cleveland. They believe it was brought down when people on board confronted the hijackers.

The 40 passengers and crew have been hailed as heroes in what some have called the first battle in America's war against terrorism.

Click here to review the Somerset crash site in pictures.

Previous Stories:

• July 10, 2002: House Bill Seeks Support For Flight 93 Memorial
• June 11, 2002: Flight 93 Widow Visits Sewickley School
• May 31, 2002: Giuliani Delivers Message Of Courage To Grads
• March 24, 2002: FBI: Flight 93 Relatives May Hear Tapes
• March 11, 2002: Shanksville Commemorates Crash Of Flight 93
• February 12, 2002: Buy Sept. 11 Bracelets
• December 6, 2001: Dispatcher Talks About Flight 93 Phone Call
• November 15, 2001: Flight 93 Hijacker's Voice Recordings Released
• October 11, 2001: Pilot Witnessed Flight 93's Final Moments
• September 12, 2001: Cities Knew Plane Was Coming, But Not Where