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the first stop of their national concert tour. The celebration, coordinated by the Elk River Aircraft Company, was held on September 2, 1928, at the airport. As Mayor Thomas E. Beck welcomed the pilots and an estimated 10,000 spectators to the event, he recalled 50 years earlier when he had been in same field behind a yoke of oxen breaking up the soil. While this was perhaps a distant memory for the mayor, it was not a distant reality for the town still relying on teams of pack animals for farm work and ferries for transportation. Mayor Beck offered a few more words of welcome and the festivities began. One of the first events was a hard-fought motorcycle polo match between two teams, each representing one of the Twin Cities. At one point play had to be stopped because an actual fight broke out between two players, but at the end of the match the team from Minneapolis eked out a victory, 3-1. With that the terrestrial activities were complete, and the crowd looked to the sky. A five-mile course had been established for the air race: from the wind cone at the airport, to the Bailey Station school, to Mr. Spear’s windmill, and back. After four laps of low flying, hard banking racing, the winner was none other than Gene Shank, proving he could fly just as well in a circle as he could in a loop. After receiving the Elk River Air Derby’s Silver Cup from L.A. Dare, Shank’s plane brought “Stub” Bressinger 2,500 feet over the crowd where he subsequently jumped out. The parachutist had a successful descent, landing on the ground just as the Cessna did. To finish the event Shank put on an aerial exhibition, performing a few of his world record loops, as well as side slips and spinning dives. For the finale he executed a stunt where he zoomed past the crowd, increased altitude, banked, and brought the plane in for a successful landing all with his hands over his head to prove he had done it with is feet. When the citizens of Elk River went home that evening, they were a community literally and figuratively buzzing with the excitement of aviation. Cartoon from the Sherburne County Star News, August 22, 1929 In a little over a year, some of the most influential figures in the history of aviation and flown pioneering expeditions across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, setting new standards for aviators around the world. In this Golden Age of Aviation air travel became a social and commercial phenomenon and thanks to trailblazers like Cate Thomas, Steve Bernard, L.A. Dare, and Vandie Ludvik, aviation is part of Elk River’s heritage as well. At a time where work and transportation still relied on many of the methods that had been in practice for centuries, the Elk River Aircraft Company helped their community look forward and upward.