On July 4, 1908, in Pleasant Valley, Glenn Curtiss flew the June Bug and made American aviation history. With Curtiss at the controls, the June Bug rose into the air, leveled off at a height of about 40 feet, and flew east toward Keuka Lake for almost a mile before landing near the farthest edge of the tree line visible in the distance. It was the first publicly announced and witnessed flight of a powered aircraft in the United States, carried out before prominent newspaper reporters and a crowd of nearly 1000 spectators, and it won Curtiss the Scientific American Trophy. The flight was the crowning achievement of Curtiss's work with his associates in the Aerial Experimentation Association, including Alexander Graham Bell. During the spring and summer of 1908, they used this area, then known as Stony Brook Farm, for short test flights of new aircraft designs, taking off from the nearby oval horse racing track. Beginning as a self-taught bicycle mechanic, Curtiss went on to achieve national prominence as a pioneer aviator, the founder of the American aircraft industry, and the father of U.S. Naval Aviation.