P.O. Ackley established the gunsmithing school at Trinidad State Junior College shortly after WWII. He took advantage of the availability of low priced government machinery and lots of G.I.'s eager to use their educational benefits. He had a large shop on the highway just outside of town and employed many students to do the work there. The old shop building was still there when I was a student in the gunsmithing school at TSJC in the mid 70's. Ackley moved his shop to Salt Lake City where it remained until his death. Ackley liked to employ a lot of girls in his shop, his reason being that he could leave the shop and not come back and find them working on personal projects like the guys would do. There's not much collecting interest in P.O. Ackley rifles as far as I know, most were pretty plain utilitarian guns like yours. I would also advise against parting it out or altering it as if nothing else it has some historical interest. The .30-06 A.I. is kind of a neat cartridge though the gain over the standard round is not that significant.
