Pictures from the 40' & 50's
 

My grandfather and grandma started the construction company back in 1943 and incorporated in 1945. It's still in the family today.
Here's some pictures I was going through and thought I'd share.
The first three are around 1955. The old Chevrolet truck hauling the Cat D-6 and pulling the Cat #70 pull scraper. Grandpa used to go across the state of WI with that rig back in the day. (The DOT would have you locked up today)
Forth picture is the D-6 and #70 pull scraper. Fifth and sixth is another D-6 along with the Farmall super C and McCormick W9.
That's my dad in the lower left picture standing with the toy tractor.

More pictures
 

The first three are building a road in northern Wi. The forth picture is where they would park the dozers at night, it was big enough to hold four dozers. Basically it was a makeshift traveling shed, it was the only way to keep the iron somewhat warm so they would start in the mornings.
Fifth picture is my grandpa digging out a lake with a D-6 and (I think it was called) Hyster on the back, equivalent to a clam/crane.
And the last picture is in the early 60's of my father cleaning out a shore of a lake.
Gives a person an idea of the "good old days". Cabs? Who needs a stinking cab? ME!!

Nice pictures and thanks for sharing them and the history with them. :ThumbsUp:

Cool pics Todd!

I like the one on the truck. you have the crawler on the trailer and the scrapper in tow. DOT would have a field day wit that today. cool pics. I would buy those negatives if I see them for sale. that's the stuff I buy.

Great pics!! I know that is the family business and work, but to me, it looks like a lot of fun to run that equipment. The pictures and stories speak volumes of a man (your grandpa) following his dream and that is a very wonderful thing that everyone can relate to. Really glad you shared these.

Cub Cadet 123

Todd, those are some WAY COOL PICS!!!!

:IH Trusted Hand:

Really enjoyed your pics, Todd! Please share some more with us, if you have anymore. :beerchug:

Here are a couple of my Dad's concrete trucks form the early 50's

Cool pics Todd of the W-9 and D-6.:beerchug:

These are great guys.

Great pictures guys, thanks for sharing.

Sam,
Those are neat pics too! I've been around a few Autocars! Up until just the last year or two, I had an oil company had a drilling/plugging rig on a 6X6 Autocar. What a HOSS! Those trucks even had "deck" motors. I didn't realize they ever ran the mixers that way. Makes sense. They used to do a lot of things that way! :beerchug:


Hey Todd,
Tell the boys about pony motors on the ol' D-6's. :biggrin2::biggrin2:

Todd and Sam way cool pics!

I'll bet you had to really plan ahead to stop that Chevy with dozer and scraper in tow!

He used to tell me stories about how long the brakes lasted in that truck, wasn't long. They used to use this old chev truck while traveling to haul the sheep's foot, and pull a trailer with fuel, maintenance equipment and push when they got to a steep grade.

Cool pictures Sam:beerchug:

Cool pics also Sam!:beer2:

Nice pics Todd.Do you travel that road they built at all now?
Sam you too.
The Man in the concrete truck was always happy to bring us our fun in the mixer.

Awesome pics, Sam!

No Lew, I have no idea where this one was built. I travel one every day though. Our driveway:biggrin2:
There is many around our area that were punched through the woods that I do travel occasionally.
If anyone is interested on how the company was started I'll give a quick rundown. Grandfather bought his first dozer (don't know the year) a Cat D-4 to clear his wood land to farm fields. He had 25 head of milk cows and a few beef cattle and needed more crop land.
The neighbors saw the finished work and hired him to do their land clearing. Back in those days there wasn't a lot of crop land around this area, so he saw a hole that needed filling so to speak. Well land clearing led to roads needing to be made to get to the fields, which led to new town roads as the city folks were moving to the country, and those folks wanted ponds built by there new homes that needed basements...... and the company was formed.
Back in those days there wasn't much if any competition either, unlike today.