Wally Byam built the first Airstream Trailer in his front yard. Wally's neighbors started asking him to build trailers for them and he obliged. Noise complaints quickly followed, so Wally rented a building and opened a small trailer factory in Culver City, California in 1931 – Airstream’s first factory. The Airstream dream was born. When Wally opened the first Airstream factory in California, there were fewer than 50 trailer manufacturers registered for business. In the next five years, demand for the trailer lifestyle exploded and the industry followed suit – by 1937, there were around 400 manufacturers competing for customers. Unfortunately for many of those daring entrepreneurs, the Great Depression and World War II took a toll, and today, only Airstream remains. In the late 1950s, Airstream purchased four acres in Jackson Center, Ohio, near the  Midwest factory. After battling cancer with his trademark tenacity, Wally Byam passed away on July 22, 1962.  The recession and the Middle East gas crisis hit American drivers hard in the late 1970s, it did the same to Airstream. With the expansion of the Jackson Center facility and a need to consolidate The California plant was closed in 1978, and all manufacturing and executive operations would move to the Ohio complex – where they remain today.