Feuding Over the Flight 93 Memorial

Brian Doherty | June 7, 2007

The complications of memory, history, and property: Mike Svonavec, the owner of the field where Flight 93 crashed, puts up a collection box to, he says, help defray costs of security for the site. It will soon by a national memorial, and the Park Service already has a use agreement with Svonavec. A Park Service spokesperson says that agreement gives them "exclusive use and control of the site."

The Park Service has thus covered up the box and insists the property owner remove it. Svonavec says he won't move the box; volunteer tour guides at the site say some well-meaning donors don't realize the money they drop in is going to the owner personally.

Fox News on the whole convoluted story of this ground which the Park Service has so far failed to fully dedicate, consecrate, or hallow. Svonavec is reportedly willing to allow them to for a final sales price of $10 million. The naive Svonavec (who denies $10 million is his selling point to get rid of the role in U.S. tragi-history that dropped from the skies and into his proverbial lap) says of the Park Service's move: "It's just unbelievable to my mind that that's the direction they would take, taking control of the property."