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aircraft than any other company. He gave me some very interesting observations on economic and industrial conditions. The other visit that impressed me was with Dr. Benson, President of Claremont Men's College which is principally devoted to training young men in economics and business administration. It is one of a group of four heavily endowed colleges at Claremont. The buildings, most of which are of recent construction, are in a veritable park. We discussed endowments of colleges and I was greatly interested in his plan to establish a course in aviation policy. 

On July 8th I flew to Denver. Los Angeles in the morning is like a man with a hangover. Its roadside slums are often enveloped in irritating smog. Soon after taking off we were over the clouds and in brilliant sunshine for about an hour when suddenly we left the clouds and had unlimited visibility in all directions. A good breakfast of hot wheatcakes helped pass the time. Below were the rugged Clark mountains without any evidence of habitation for miles. We landed at Las Vegas where I had a bright idea of which more later. After leaving Las Vegas, the pilot gave us an exceptionally scenic flight over Boulder Dam and Lake Mead created by the Dam. Then he flew right up the Grand Canyon. It was a perfect day and the colors and shadows were most picturesque. As we were quite low, say 5000 feet, the view of this world famous gorge of the Colorado River was as spectacularly beautiful in the varied stratas of its sides as any carvings of nature in the world. The pilot called our attention to the site of an Indian village in a valley which he said dated back to the time of Christ. The yellow Colorado River, even below the Dam, suggested the silt problem that will have to be solved sometime at Lake Mead. On either side of the noted canyon, there were rocks on projecting mounts of almost every weird shape, some so clear cut that they looked like the cores of extinct volcanoes. In all directions there were gorges, smaller but equally picturesque as the large canyon. Soon we were over the Continental Divide and the snow capped mountains of Colorado, fifty of which are over 14,000 feet altitude. They were several thousand feet below us as we were flying at 20,000 feet. I was able to take two pictures of the snow on the peaks below us and this was in July. Soon we left the scenic mountains and landed at the airport at Denver. 

I had purposely come to Denver on the Saturday before the Monday dedication so that I could have an advance view of the temporary Academy site at Lowery Air Force Base and see some very old aviation friends. I was assigned a room in the famous old Brown Palace Hotel. Memories came back to me of 1911 when I was General Manager of the Blaugas Company which introduced bottled gas for country dwellings in this country - another forgotten pioneering job of mine. A representative whom I had sent to Denver shot and killed two men in the bar of the hotel. After a sensational trial he was sentenced for life. The rich and beautiful lady involved later died on Welfare island in New York. The whole story was printed in a history of the hotel I purchased at the newstand. 

The first thing I did, of course, was to call on Lt.Gen. Hubert Harmon, head of the new Air Force Academy. He has been a friend for thirty odd years. He was Air Attache in London when I presented the Lindbergh historical films to the British Archives and attended the ceremony of presentation to Sir Samuel Hoare, the Air Minister.

I had often wondered where I would place the miniature model of the Wright Brothers Kitty Hawk airplane which made the first flight on December 17th 1903. Its surfaces are covered with the original fabric used on the world famous machine's first flight making it unique among all models. I asked Gen. Harmon if the Academy would like to have it. He was so appreciative that