Today airports are bustling centers of activity. Busy travellers are heading to various destinations or arriving from faraway places. Jetliners taxi along airstrips, then drop off, or pick up thousands of passengers daily. Did you ever stop to think about where and how it all started? A man named Lyman Gilmore Jr. played a part in the beginnings of commercial aviation. Mr. Gilmore lived in Northern California around the turn of the twentieth century. His foresight and imagination gave birth to our country's first commercial airfield. Lyman Gilmore Jr. was also a miner and inventor. Read about the fact and folklore of this colorful air pioneer as you explore a part of aviation's past.