the Wrigley's bought Catalina island in 1919 improved it with public utilities, new steamships, a hotel, the Casino building, and extensive planting of trees, shrubs, and flowers, built a baseball field for the spring training of their Chicago Cubs, and helped design a unique airport at Hamilton Cove, the second cove north of Avalon.
This airport was designed to accommodate the Douglas Dolphin amphibian planes of the Wilmington-Catalina Air Line, Ltd., a Wrigley-operated firm. The twin engine Dolphins landed just offshore and would taxi up a ramp to a large turntable mechanism. The airplane would then be rotated until it was facing the water and ready for a trip back to the mainland.
A small Spanish-style terminal building welcomed residents, business people and tourists to Catalina. Catalina Airport was soon described as “the smallest airport with the longest landing field (the Pacific) in the world.”
the Cubs baseball team disembarking
http://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_Views_of_Catalina.html
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