A group made up of relatives of those killed aboard United Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001, announced Tuesday that it had agreed to buy a 903-acre tract to be part of a permanent memorial near Shanksville, Pa.
The land is owned by PBS Coals Inc., a company in Somerset, Pa., that previously mined the site. The company will also donate the 27 acres closest to the crash site. Both parcels will eventually be transferred to the National Park Service, which is overseeing the creation of the memorial.
The company, in turn, is donating the money to an environmental trust fund to monitor runoff from old mines in the area. The temporary memorial (above) is haunting and inspirational in its simplicity and spontaneity, but hopefully the permanent memorial will be equally fitting. (And maybe they'll make it easier to find--speaking from experience, the current one is very difficult to track down for those lacking an intimate knowledge of the backcountry roads of western Pennsylvania.)
--Josh Patashnik