Site of the Initial United States Air Meet

The second air meet in the world, after Reims, and the first in this country. For eleven days in January 1910 something like 254,000 people rode the Pacific Electric out to Domínguez Hill, paid fifty cents, and sat in a grandstand watching men fly. Louis Paulhan took a Farman to 4,164 feet for the altitude record and Glenn Curtiss ran 55 miles an hour. The Wrights stayed away and then sued, and the courts made Paulhan pay damages for having flown at all. The state set this bronze on the fiftieth anniversary, to the day.

What the plaque says

About one half mile southeast of this spot, on Dominguez Hill in historic Rancho San Pedro, the first Air Meet in the United States was held during January 10-20, 1910. Subsequently, this area has evolved into one of the world's leading aviation-industrial centers. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 718 Plaque placed by the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the City of Compton and the County of Los Angeles, January 10, 1960.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Domínguez Rancho Adobe — 1.1 mi
  The first Spanish land grant in California contained the whole harbor, and in 1846 fifty Californio lancers turned back three hundred Marines on it.
• The Banning Museum — 5.1 mi
  The man who made a harbor out of an open bay: freight, dredging, the first railroad in Southern California, and a cupola for watching ships.
• Drum Barracks — 5.5 mi
  The Union Army built its Southern California headquarters in a county that had voted against Lincoln two to one, and stabled the Army camels here.
• Puvungna — 8.4 mi
  The Acjachemen and Tongva place of creation: twenty-two acres of open ground on a university campus, still not in the hands of its people.

More markers nearby

• Domínguez Ranchhouse — 1.1 mi
• Heritage House — 2.2 mi
• Rancho Los Cerritos Historic Site — 2.7 mi
• Hay Tree — 4.5 mi