%N0RTHWEST

NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1967

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BNIRH]TWH§§T '““““””““NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY COMPANY

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November-December 1967 IF YOU wnsn INFORMATION regarding rm Northern r¢<m< Railway,or about industry, agriculture and other resources in the territory which it serves,please address one of the following aieers (depending on the information desired):

GEORGE R. ROWEGeneral Mqr., Properties and Industrial Development St. Paul, Minn. 5510]E. M. STEVENSONVice President—TraIic St. Paul, Minn. 55101

GEORGE M. WASHINGTONC0||(¢||l§ Vice President—Oil Development lillings, Mant. $9101

ROIERT A. JUIACon as sweet as sugar candy . . . . . . 3 Mu,-sq", Industrial Development so. RGO‘, Minn. 55101

RICHARD D. LARSONY.kim‘ lndhns ind I . I 7 Western Manager, Industrial Development Seattle, Wash. 98104

S. G. MERRYMANManager, Timber and Western lands Seattle, Wash. 98104

NEW Bllllll PM “SH . . . gmqigf i_ ‘HollowManager, Mineral Development and Eastern lands St. Paul, Minn. 55l0l

Melroe Man|lIldIQ Ievibl ....l3 K; '-- c°°'_(Director, Agricultural Development Department St. Paul, Minn. 5510!

WAl.TER GUSTAFSONManager, Advertising and Publicity St. Paul, Minn. $5101

All material prepared by sta of The Northwest

W. A. MQKENZIE, EditorVol. 41, No. 6

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Front cover—An apparently typical harvest scene on thefarm of North Dakota Congressman Mark Andrews is not W} y,

nearly as typical as it appears. This corn is being cut not for - ' i "T '

silage, but for sweets. It ts d8SI!!I€d for the plant of Northland .7

Research company near Mapleton, where it will be reduced to - ’

a liquid sweetener, then shipped to Waseca, Minn.

Back cover—A welder in the tool and die shop at MelroeMfg. C0., Gwinner, N.D., joins part of a jig. This rm usual-ly employs local people, most of them farmers with a degreeof practical experience, trains them as machinists, etc.

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New sweetener hits marketSeveral miles west of Fargo, N.D., near the com- painfully slow; almost 100 years passed before it was

munity of Mapleton, stands a newly-constructed providing 5 per cent of the world's sugar production.plant that represents a world landmark in the pro- Yet 40 years later, in I880, it surpassed cane andduction of sugar. A world landmark because for the held the dominant position until World War I.rst time in more than two centuries, man has found After cane regained the lead, a relatively stablea new and potentially major source for his favorite situation prevailed until ve years ago. Then thecarbohydrate food. market exploded in a frantic display of wildly gyrat-

This new source is sugar com, itself aradically new ing prices and uctuating supplies. And in thebreed in the family of plants cultivated for thousands middle of this the Cuban missile crisis erupted. Theof years by the Indians of the Americas. And what's response of the western hemispheric nations was a

equally fascinating is the fact that the man who is boycott against Castro's sugar, a move which made itresponsible for this exciting development, Robert W. necessary for the U.S. to increase its quotas on bothWiper, president of Northland Research company, imported and domestic production, both cane and

‘ Minneapolis, was neither farmer nor sugar expert beet. Enter Bob Wiper.

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when he made his discovery. At that time, Bob Wiper was serving GeneralSugar cane and sugar beets have been the primary Mills, lnc., Minneapolis, as a commodity analyst.

sources of this common food, while the sugar maples, (Needless to say, this giant of the milling industry issorghums, coco palms, the aloe and a few other an important user of sugar, one whose sales andplants long have been important in limited areas as production are particularly sensitive to changes in thissources for sweetish foods, syrups and sugar. All but commodity's supply and price.) One day about fourone of them, the beet, were prized in their wild states years ago, Wiper heard of the development of a high-as long ago as the New Stone Age. The beet, on the sugar-content com for use as cattle fodder, and heother hand, had been used both as a garden vegetable was prompted to wonder whether this new breedand as a cattle food for centuries before it was dis- might not also hold promise as a source of sugar forcovered, in l747, that the sugar in its juice was the human consumption.same as that in cane. Even so, its development was After preliminary inquiries, Northland Research

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Trackside view of Northland Research Co. plant them. Harvesting of the crop has been contracted toshows million-gallon storage tank, evaporator tower Customizers, lnc., a Mapleton rm. Using trucksand tank cars for hauling raw sweetener to Waseca. with hydraulic dumping mechanisms, Customizers

cuts, chops and hauls the com to the sugar plant.embarked on a course that led to construction of There the dry raw material is weighed and dumpedplants at Mapleton and Waseca, Minn. Today, both into a conveyor which delivers it to a diffuser insideplants are in production, and soon Midwest con- the plant. The stage is then set for the extractionsumers will be getting their rst taste of products process to get underway.sweetened with corn stalk sweetener. What is this The diffuser is a long tunnel-like structure with asweetener, and how is it obtained? perforated oor, through which the juices fall to a

Everybody has heard of com syrup, and it may be series of hoppers. To begin extraction, the com isimagined that there’s a connection of some sort here. sparged; that is, sprayed with water at about 135Fact is, they're two entirely different products, each degrees. The sugar is more or less soaked out of thederived from different parts of the plant. Syrup is nely chopped stalks, and the juice drips into theobtained through a partial hydrolysis of cornstarch, hoppers. It is piped out of these along the way andwhich is taken from the kemels. Northland’s sweet- sent back to the head end of the diffuser until it at-ener is extracted from the stalks of a corn variety tains amaximum sugar concentration.which, under ideal growing conditions, produces cobs At this point, the juice is pumped into a tankthat bear no grain. where its acidity—measured in terms of its pl-l

Northland’s com is a male sterile hybrid. In other factor (on the Sorenson Scale)—is neutralized bywords, it should normally shed no pollen and, thus, the addition of lime to forestall fermentation. Fromcan't fertilize the ear, which is the female or pistillate the neutralizer, it is pumped into another tankhalf of the plant's reproductive apparatus. Therefore, through a ne screen to strain out any debris whichalthough the cob forms, along with its rows of paired may accompany it. Then it is ltered and piped to aspikelets, the latter do not give rise to the kemels, or juice storage tank.seeds. In this circumstance, the sugar is not taken up In the next step, the liquid is sent to a battery ofand converted into starch but remains in the stalks to four 40-foot evaporators where it is concentrated tobe extracted at Northland’s two plants. a syrup containing about 67 per cent sugar. Then it

Northland Research contracted with local farmers goes outside the building to a massive million-gallon,to raise 6,000 acres of com from seed it furnished steel storage tank.4

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Below left is head end of the diffuser, while shot atrig/1! is an inside view of the diffuser showing its per-forated oor and conveyor.

At left is the dump where chopped corn stalks areunloaded. Below is a chamber in which juice is l-tered before evaporation process begins.

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Above is view of evaporators under construction. Atleft, Royal Berstler shows where raw juice is strainedafter it has been neutralized.

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Ultimately, the syrup is shipped in tank cars leased used to wring water out of the pulp, reducing itsfrom the A. E. Staley company, manufacturers of moisture content to about 50 per cent. This, then,syrup, to the Waseca plant. There the nal steps in speeds the dehydrating operation.the rening process are carried out. This involves The dehydrator was installed on the site last yearclarifying it and running it through a mechanical and used last fall for a pilot operation on the test cropdevice which, Wiper says, is a very sophisticated of corn. After the pulp is thoroughly dried in thislter much like a home water softener. Specic resins trackside plant, it is sold as a livestock feed to feedersare used to effect an ion exchange by which minute and feed mills.particles of any deleterious organic material are re- The plant employs 30 people and operates, at themoved from the syrup. peak of the harvest, on a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week

“Our saleable product,“ Wiper explains, “is a schedule. There are actually four shifts involved. ltsucrose-invert syrup, or liquid sugar, which we ship takes three seven-man shifts to keep the plant goingin varying concentrations. ln other words, you could around the clock, plus a fourth to provide days offsay that this is almost like a prescription business: for the employes. E]manufacturers of candy, baked goods, soft drinks,etc., want or need different concentrations. What we

He said, too, that Northland Researeh‘s product isa natural sucrose-invert blend of sugars which manu-facturers actually prefer to the liquid sugar blendsformerly available to them, and which have to bemixed mechanically. Approximately two-thirds of thesugar sold in the country is purchased by industrialconsumers, he went on, and a little less than one-fourth of this is delivered as a liquid.

“So there is an immense market for our product inthe immediate area and as far east as Chicago,” he “'\“‘added.

The rm has a by-product to sell, also, accordingto Royal Berstler, resident manager of the Mapletonplant. This is the pulp that‘s left over after the sugarhas been removed from the chopped stalks.

As pulp leaves the diffuser, it is broken up andsent through a pair of gigantic eight-ton, steel de-watering rolls. These resemble the rollers on awringer-type washing machine, except that each ismade with inch-deep grooves that mesh with each "'other as they turn in opposite directions. They are

ship varies between 66 and 74 per cent sugar." rrt.

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A t right is a view of the huge dewatering rolls wherepulp is squeezed to speed itx dehydration in the sep-arate dehydrator plant shown below.

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“I have the honor to submit herewith, in duplicate, The plant, leased by White Swan Industries, lnc.,for the action of Congress, a draught of a bill pre- is the brain child of the corporation's president.pared in the Oice of Indian Aairs, to accept and Jerome J. Goldstein, who has spent 20 years in theratify an agreement made January I3, I885, with the furniture business, the last four as a consultant to theconfederated tribes and bands of Indians occupying industry. His reasons for having chosen the Yakimathe Yakima Indian Reservation, in Washington Ter- reservation site are interesting.ritory, for the relinquishment of their title to so much “l had always felt that there was a great need for0] said reservation as is required for the use of the a mass production upholstery factory in the West,“Northern Pacic Railroad. . . ." he said. “There are quite a few of them in the south-

Thus wrote L. Q. C. Lamar, Secretary of the ln- eastem part of the U.S., but until we came along,terior, in a letter addressed to President Grover none in the West."Cleveland, 80 years ago this December. The bill he Explaining that lumber is the basis for almost allreferred to languished in Congress for more than fumiture, he said the rst requirement is to locate inve years, then was nally passed and signed by an area where lumber is available. And, as had beenPresident Benjamin Harrison on his last day in oice, proven in the South, that to operate economicallyMarch 3, 1893, the day before President Cleveland and competitively it would be necessary also to locatewas inaugurated for his second term. Less than three in a rural or suburban area where it is usually moreweeks later, the Northern Pacic paid to Secretary economical to operate.of the Treasury John G. Carlisle the sum of “Having known that there were a number of$8,295.80 for the land it needed for right of way and plants, possibly not as large as ours, that had beenstation grounds. Of this amount, $5,309 was for the located on Indian reservations, I decided to pursuebenet of all the Yakima lndians, while the re-mainder was paid to individuals whose farms the J. J. Goldstein. sealed. Md 1- H- H¢l\"0'~\‘¢". NP 38"-rail |in¢ ¢m55¢d_ eral agent at Yakima, discuss plans for the plant ded-

Almost 75 years have passed, and now the North- I?-‘lllivll Wlllfll W08 lwld 061058!‘ 28-em Pacic and the Yakima Indians are parties toanother trackage agreement. In this case, the railwaycompany cooperated in the construction of a spurtrack to serve a new ll4-acre industrial park estab-lished by the Confederated Tribes and Bands of theYakima Indian Nation at Wapato, Wash. In a veryreal sense, the latter agreement signals far greater andmore lasting benets to the Yakimas than its ancientpredecessors, benets which already are being real-ized. For, in addition to creating the industrial park,they also have built a furniture factory. And thisplant is providing not only a substantial rental in-come for the tribe as a whole, but jobs for I30 of itsmembers besides.

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Sewing covers, top, and sawing lumber, Five members of Morrisson family at work earninglower view, are initial steps in White more than six times their former t0tal_annual incomeSwan furniture-making procedure. of $3,000. Mrs. Morrisson has I2 children.

such a plan with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I felt shooting for full employment at 200. Planned pro-that an ideal situation would be to locate in a high- duction at that level is in excess of 500 units per day,unemployment area where the labor problem would he said.be limited to a minimum," he said. “At present we’re running one shift, with a few

To complete his “ideal situation,” he decided that bottleneck operations running on a second shift. Asthe Indian reservation selected must have power, to the future, only time will tell," he said. “Thosewater and rail service, and must meet a number of production gures are based on a ve-day, 40-hourother requirements that he had on his checklist. So, week."after making a study of the available reservation in- Current output is comprised of recliners in a num-dustrial sites, he determined that the Yakima reserva- ber of styles, but the intent is to produce other typestion met his needs more closely than any other area. of chairs in the future. These vary both in appearanceAnd with no thought of making a pun, he said he had and operation. In the vemacular of the trade, ashad no reservations about the quality of Indian labor. described by Goldstein, there are both two-way and“I sincerely felt that from all I had read about the three-way low-prole recliners and two-way andIndians they were exceptional craftsmen, and that if three-way high-prole recliners. The former are madegiven the opportunity they would make an ideal labor with breakaway backs, while the latter come with fullforce. Although from many of my investigations it legs and in appearance are much like the customaryappeared that the input from these areas was not the living room furniture. Too, there are rocker-reclinersbest, it seemed to me that they had been judged which, as their name indicates, can be rocked or re-under conditions that were different from what I was clined. Not all of these variations are in productionplanning. at White Swan. but will be in the future.“I also felt that if my stockholders would be satis- Putting it simply, a recliner consists of a sewned with a nancially successful operation, and that cover a frame and springs, with padding in between.if I were able to contribute something in the way of But, of course, there are countless operations bothimproving the Indians‘ lot, I would be a happy man, with skilled hands and modern machines that mustindeed," he concluded. It now seems that his judg- be performed before a piece of quality fumiturements were correct. emerges. Upholstery fabrics are cut and joined by

Construction on the 110,000-square foot building women in a fully air conditioned, H.000-square footwas begun November I, I966, and production was sewing room at the head end of the plant. At thestarted on a limited basis June I5. At this time, em- other end is the rough mill, where raw, alder lumberployment had reached I30. and Goldstein says he's goes through crosscutting and rip saws and edge

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In column at left are shown two of the various stepsrecliners go through in the upholstery department.Woman is attaching buttons to recliner backs.

Left to right, Eagle Seelatsee, tribal councilman," J. J.Goldstein; Harvey Adams, councilman, and AntoineSkahan, tribal council chairman, stand amid some ofthe vinyl-covered recliners that are made in severalstyles and many colors.

gluing and surfacing machines before it is turned development. The furniture plant was built at a costinto parts of the frames. Then, in a nish mill, the of $722,000 and is being leased to White Swan at alumber is cut into exact sizes and shapes, bored and monthly rate of $6,500. Capital spent by the corpora-drilled for dowels. tion pushed the total plant investment to nearly

ln the framing department the parts are assembled $2 million.with glue and metal staples, as well as dowels. The Bert L. Bennett, U.S. commissioner of lndiansprings are attached with clips, and the frame is ready Aairs, attended and delivered the principal addressfor upholstering. At this point, the covers from the at formal dedication ceremonies for the industrialsewing room join the frames and the two components park and plant held at Wapato October 28. Shortlyproceed together through many upholstery operations before his departure from Washington, Bennett an-in a modied assembly line. While the majority of nounced that a coordinated effort to develop “moreemployes in these areas are men, not a few wo.men effective leadership for lndian community develop-may be found in the framing and upholstery depart- ment“ has been launched by his bureau.ments. “We hope," he said. “that the group spirit and cul-

Alder is the basic western hardwood used in furni- tural strengths which have enabled many lndianture, and White Swan obtains its current supplies groups to survive and maintain their identity againstfrom the western parts of Washington and Oregon. tremendous odds, may be translated into new com-However, Goldstein said that Ponderosa pine, which munity actions which (in turn) can generate thegrows on the reservation and is being processed by social and economic progress necessary to bring ln-sawmills in the immediate area at present, will dians into their rightful place in American society."eventually be incorporated into the operation. It's obvious from what has been accomplished at

“There are some products in which we can utilize Wapato that the Confederated Tribes and Bands ofonly alder," he said, “but there are others that can the Yakima lndian Nation have made several giantopen the way for employing pine produced locally. steps in that direction on their own. From the mem-And that could give the area another economic shot bers of the Council right down to the workers in thein the arm." plant, all of whom had to be trained in their new

Antoine Skahan, chairman of the Yakima Tribal work, these people are determined to prove that theyCouncil, reported that the Yakimas developed their can take their places and keep pace with the rest ofindustrial park with the aid of a $150,960 grant from American society. Thanks to the leadership of thethe Economic Development Administration. ln addi- Council and the faith of Jerry Goldstein and Whitetion, the tribe used $38,040 of its own money in the Swan Industries, lnc., they're proving it now. I]

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Dead sagebrush is evident m view of rangeland. . . .

leased from NP by rancher J. M. Nansel. This is partof area sprayed last spring with a 2,4-D herbicide.

Kenneth McClain, resident manager of the newplant, said the company feels that the agnculturaleconomy is on the move in Montana and the sur-roundm r th d' ' ' g a ea, so eir investment is justi e .1 “There are some 16 to l7 million acres of wheatalone in this market area,” he said, “and countlessacres of grazing land. These will be our primary

Yes, Virginia; there is a wild West. There's still a targets."range war going on, and many of that region's in- Trekker Chemical makes the ammunition that'shabitants are still trying to win the West. All in a used in the war on weeds. That is, the company buysmanner of speaking, of course. the technical materials required, then formulates 10

lt’s not a battle with six-guns. This war is being dierent herbicidal compounds containing 2,4-D acidfought with 2,4-D, and it's being waged against sev- (full name: 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid).eral wild enemies, principally broadleaved weeds Production and sales, both, are based in its newand sagebrush on farm and range lands. Butler steel building, a sky-blue and white structure

The latest combatant to enter this conict, as an that encloses nearly 8,000 square feet of manufac-ally of the farmer and rancher, is the Trekker Chemi- turing, storage and oice space. Completely insulatedcal company, Billings, Mont., a division of the and heated for year-round operation, it was erectedHelena Chemical company, of West Helena, Ark., in the industrial area of northeast Billings where itformulators and distributors of agricultural chemi- could be served by Northem Pacic trackage.cals. Construction of the plant in Billings amounts to Raw materials, such as butyl and isopropyl esters,the rm‘s rst invasion of the West. are received in rail tank cars and stored in six white

Helena Chemical, as the parent organization, storage tanks outside the building. Each of the tanksoperates 23 plants under several division and sub- has a capacity of 15,000 gallons. These liquids aresidiary names in the U.S., with a heavy eoncentra- piped underground and into the plant where they cantion in the South and Southeast. lts facilities are well be fed through valves individually into either of twoestablished in the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Ala- l,400-gallon mixing vats.bama, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Missouri, The vats, recessed into the oor, look like giantas well as Arkansas. Until the Billings plant was replicas of the mixing bowls that are so common tobuilt, the company’s northemmost penetration had American households. The only real difference be-carried it into Illinois. tween them, beyond the obvious disparity in sizes, is

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View at right shows NP land under lease in Gallatinmountains. It will be sprayed by airplane next springto eradicate the heavy growth of sagebrush.

that the vats form part of a huge scale by which theingredients can be weighed as they’re added. On alower level, the vats rest on delicately balancedframes that are connected to a scale beam on themain oor.

Although each ingredient is measured with greatcare, Trekker doesn’t rely entirely on this procedureto insure accurate formulation. To determine whetherthe mixed product is within specications, a sampleis withdrawn from the vat and injected with whatlooks like a hypodermic syringe into a gas chromato-graph. Heat is applied, the specimen is gasied, andthe machine automatically draws a prole of thecompound on a graph. This prole may be comparedto one produced by the machine from a controlsample with a perfectly formula balanced.balanced.

If there happens to be a variation in the proles,the chemist can add enough ester to bring the batchup to specications, or dilute it sufciently to achievethe proper balance of ingredients. In this manner,Trekker can guarantee that each gallon produced i icontains a specic amount of active 2,4-D or itsequivalent. Thus, govemment regulations are met.and the customer is assured of quality.

One of Trekker's formulations, 2,4-D Ester 6, ismade by reacting butyl alcohol with 2,4-D acid andmixing the resulting butyl ester with another esterobtained by reacting isopropyl alcohol with the acid.The end product contains 78.1 per cent of the com-bined esters, plus 21.9 per cent inert ingredients, byweight. Thus, one gallon of 2,4-D Ester 6 containsthe equivalent of six pounds of 2,4-D acid. What canit do?

According to the label on this product, “Trekker2,4-D Ester 6 is a selective, emulsiable or oil-miscible herbicide for the control of most broad-leaved annual weeds, and the herbaceous and woodyperennial weeds that are susceptible to . . . (it).This product can be used in airplane or ground spray-ing equipment, using either oil or water as the carry- Kenneth McClain, left, and D. J. Powers, NP generaling agent.” agent, Billings, talk beside a Trekker mixing vat.

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View on lower level of Trekker plant shows how the1,400-mixing vats are balanced on scale frame.

By selective, the manufacturer of herbicides meansthat his product affects only certain species of plantlife. That is, the basis for its use is its selectivetoxicity; it kills weeds or other undesirable plantlife while leaving the crops unharmed. The mostcommon of the selective herbicides in use in the U.S.today is 2,4-D. which was synthesized in l94l andproved successful in extensive tests on lawns andcrops in l944. A fter they have been mixed, herbicides are pumped

Analysis of plant behavior following applications into this pair of tanks used for lling drums.of 2.4-D revealed that the acid is a growth substance,or hormone. ln effect. it stimulates certain succulent from sagebrush. When the two-year deferment hasplants to grow so fast that they literally grow them- passed. Nansel will be able to produce a great dealselves to death. At the same time. it has virtually no more beef without expanding his land holdings.effect on grasses. Within ve years of its discovery, Trekker‘s Ken McClain says his plant will serve a2,4-D had been used to control weeds on more than market area comprised of Montana and the two20 million acres of small grains and corn in this Dakotas. A great part of this region is semi-arid, acountry. ln I962, more than 70 million acres of crop- condition which renders weed control a matter ofland were treated with it. And its use on grazing primary importance to the farmer and rancher. Get-lands is on the increase. too. ting rid of weeds and brush lets grains and grasses

J. M. Nansel, a rancher near Forsyth_ Mont., who utilize most of the rain and snowfall, making forleases six sections of grazing land from the Northern better crops and pasture, or, to be more precise.Pacic, sprayed more than 2,l0O acres of this land larger harvests and more meat.in May to eradicate sagebrush. Although it wasn't Another advantage to be found in the use of 2.4-Dovergrazed, the land was in poor condition owing to is its safety. When used according to the instructionsa heavy cover of large sagebrush. on the label, it has never caused a reported injury

Nansel's spray mixture. spread from an airplane. or death of any person through contamination ofcontained butyl ester 2,4-D. Diesel fuel was used as food, the Department of Agriculture reports. Andthe carrier, and was sprayed at the rate of two gal- this is a tribute to the care taken by Trekker andlons per acre, which deposited the equivalent of two other manufacturers in the formulation of theirpounds of 2,4-D acid on each acre. products. So with this degree of safety prevailing.

ln this case, the 2.4-D landed on the silvery green. its‘s a near cinch that customers of Trekker‘s newaromatic foliage of the shrubby sagebrush and was plant will be increasing in the months and yearstranslocated through its stems and branches. ulti- ahead.mately reaching the roots of the plants and killing McClain said his plant was completed in time tothem. As a result, the desirable grasses will grow and produce for just a few months this year. From nowspread more vigorously. permitting Nansel to graze on, though. his crews will be turning out Trekkermore animals on the land than before. herbicides from January l through the growing sea-

To insure that the grass will increase in this man- son on an eight-hour daily basis.ner, he deferred grazing his cattle on the sprayed land lf the agricultural economy of Montana and theduring the growing season just past. and will follow Dakotas is on the move. as McClain puts it. thenthe same procedure next summer. The various certainly his company will be providing an additionalgrasses thus will be allowed to develop their seeds impetus to it, as well as giving a boost to the region’sand reproduce for two full seasons. spreading rela- growing industrial economy. All in all. things don’ttivcly rapidly over the pasture without competition look too good for the weeds out West. C]

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Al left is a view of Melroe’s modern offices.

the term smacks of contradiction. Melroe‘s manage-ment team, formerly pictured in leather jackets andplaid sport shirts, now presents a more orthodoxbusiness front which, in a sense, only makes thephenomenon of this great “industrial complex in thewilderness” all the more surprising. And despite the

. change to business suits, the friendly, casual atmos-phere remains. But there are other changes.

When this magazine's rst story appeared, Mel-, roe’s plant area had reached somewhere in the neigh-

.__ borhood of 35,000 square feet. Today—or, rather,

Melroe keeps right on growing“Gwinner, N.D., a country town, population I97. at last c0unt—the rm has about l50,000 square

in southeastem North Dakota, not on a main artery feet under roof at Gwinner, 30,000 in the just-of trade, seems an unlikely location for a factory acquired Reiten Manufacturing company plant atwhich employs I10 workers who fabricate useful Cooperstown, N.D., and some 7,000 square feet inproducts that are sold in nearly all parts of the a new distribution facility near Southampton, Eng-United States and Canada.“ land.

So began an article entitled “Small Town but Big The Gwinner complex is spreading over an en-Business,” dealing with the Melroe Manufacturing larged 30-acre site almost faster than a photographercompany at Gwinner, in the September-October, can keep up with it. Accompanying this article is anI958, issue of The Northwest. Elaborating on its aerial photo showing the site after the largest Melroecountry-town theme three paragraphs later, the story building—the one at the extreme right—had beenwent on: completed earlier this year. Not shown, however, is

“Everyone knows everybody. No big-city for- a newly-occupied parts depot that was erected justmality exists here. Sportshirt casualness extends even out of the lower left portion of the picture, immedi-to the front office. . . .” Then, lest anyone misunder- ately across the Northern Pacic trackage from thestand the point he was trying to make, perhaps to nearest of the other buildings. And no one thinks forthe detriment of the rm, the author hastened to con- one minute that the expansion will end there. ln fact,elude that paragraph with: “. . . but anyone visiting an engineering building and an oice addition arethe plant will conclude that it (the casualness) does nearing the contract stage right now. What's behindnot minimize a sharp outlook that is kept focused on it all? This magazine's former editor caught thefactory costs, production schedules, nance and essence in a single phrase: “useful products.”urgent matters of engineering, advertising, sales and lt was back in I947 that E. G. Melroe and hisdistribution."

Even so, a visitor to Gwinner and the Melroe Below is Melr0e’s famous Windrow Pickup at work.plant today might well believe, if he had read thisearlier story, that the author must have been writingabout two different subjects. That's how manychanges must be made in that decade-old description.

' True, Gwinner is still an island in a vast sea ofagricultural greenery, and no frceway's twin ribbonsof concrete have been laid to bring the world of _

trade any closer to the town‘s door. But a veritablepopulation explosion, due entirely to Melroe‘s sub-sequent growth, has more than doubled Gwinner'sonce-dwindling number of inhabitants. And the same .- .

expansion has raised Melroe's permanent employ- 1;s':§i'$“‘--M"” "Q".-~ment gure to 450, with peak summer employmentreaching 525, about equal to the community's popu-lation.

Furthermore, that earlier “sportshirt casualness”has given way to “business-suit" casualness, although

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four sons made the big step from farm machine shop rather than tracks. Yet the machine is less thanto manufacturing plant. Since 1929 they had been seven feet long. This means it can easily be turnedmaking their “charter” product, an improved wind- around in its own tracks right inside a box car.row pickup invented by the eldest Melroe, right on lt has an unusual four-wheel drive, with no dif-the family farm not far from Gwinner. The patent ferential, and has simple-to-operate, independentfor this implement was sold to John Deere in 1940, steering levers for each side. This drive mechanism isand then Melroe went ahead and developed an even sealed in the sides of its single-unit, welded frame.better version. From that time on, there was no hold- And in all except electric-powered models, theing them. When civilian construction opened up again frame also serves as the gas tank. That's part of thefollowing World War ll, the Melroes “came to town" reason for its compactness, which, in turn, gives riseand built the 60-by-100-square foot plant from which to the countless ways it can be used.today's giant grew. ln considering how this machine can be used, it

As the Windrow Pickup became known far and would almost be easier to try to think of a way itwide as a piece of quality farm equipment, the can't be used. Melroe already has 20 different attach-Melroe people began working on a new principle in ments designed expressly for the Bobcat. lt can beeld cultivation. They developed a spring tooth har- found on any kind of construction site, in loggingrow and transport drawbar which have won popu- operations on a mountain top, down in a mine, on thelarity and acclaim in the Upper Midwest and Canada. sidewalk plowing snow, on farm and ranch diggingOf the 26,000 harrow sections purchased in the post holes, on top of buildings which are being de-country last year, more than l9,000 of them were of molished, stacking masonry on a construction site.the Melroe design. (Last year, too, Melroe made its ln one case, a contractor disassembled one into its50,000th Windrow Pickup, which gave the rm un- basic units and lowered it by helicopter into thedisputed leadership in that product, too.) And now Grand Canyon where it was reassembled and put tothey‘re building the Bobcat, a compact, do-anything work. That’s real versatility.loader possessing an incredible power-to-size ratio. Aolh Slaflllng fa“ about lh¢ 305%! i5 lhl.

According to Ferd Froeschle, the rm‘s advertis- according to Cli Melroe, it’s now at work on everying manager, the Bobcat's operating principle was continent, with the possible exception of Antarctica.originated by two brothers who later became Melroe “Melroe didn't start manufacturing for the exportemployes, Cy and Louis Keller, of Rothsay, Minn. trade at any specic date,” he said. “Our rst ma-The machine was developed by the company, begin- chine to go overseas was sent to Tutt Bryant, Ltd., inning in 1957, under the immediate direction of Cliff Australia, back in 1964. This is a Sydney-based rmMelroe, president. Louis Keller has since retired, but with branches throughout Australia. lt continues toCy is still on the Melroe payroll, traveling throughout operate as our dealership there, and a very successfulthe country for the Bobcat sales department. one, too.”

Probably not since the rst front-end loader was That same year, I964, Melroe entered into licens-introduced has a machine so taken the construction ing agreements with a German rm and a Britishworld by storm as has the Melroe Bobcat. And why rm to manufacture the Bobcat in those countries.not? lt's built like a diminutive tank, is every bit as “These agreements didn’t work out, though, so wemaneuverable, can lift l,000 pounds to more than terminated them. Now we have a small plant ineight feet high, and runs for an hour on one gallon Southampton,” he explained, “which is operated as aof fuel, to name but a few of its many basic attributes. sales and service facility and as a base for making

Like a tank it can be turned 360 degrees within minor modications for the European market. But atits own length, although it's equipped with wheels this time, all Melroe products are manufactured in

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Bobcat in use digging post holes.

l Just one view of rm’s modern machinew shop shows battery of drill presses.

Farmer-machinist operates multi-spindled turretlathe. Melroe also hires local college students duringsummer under unique ‘scholarship’ plan.

Gwinner and Cooperstown.”Melroe acquired the Cooperstown plant October l,

but this rm has been making parts for Melrocproducts since 1943. Lately it has been tuming outframes for the Bobcat. At the same time, Reiten hashad its own line of industrial and agriculturalproducts, including its well-known Trip-beam plow,an implement equipped with spring-loaded parts i 'which automatically return to position after havingbeen tripped by a rock or other obstacle. The plowand other Reitan items will remain in productionunder the company's new management.

“Our plans are not only to continue all presentmanufacture engaged in by the Reiten company,“ hesaid, “but to expand the plant facilities and workingforce — it presently numbers 93 — in the near future.We fcgl wg havc acquirgd an gxcgllgnt p|an[ and S€0I€d, above: Cll, l€fl, and 1.6818!‘ M8lf0€. Stand-products and hope to substantially increase the con- I718, /1’/I Iv "'8'"-' E"8¢’"¢’ Dam ("Yd 1'W718 ""11 R08"tributions of this company to the Cooperstown area." Mflm C1517 1'5 P"’5"d¢’"l' me 07"?" 4"’ vice P"-"3

lncrease is a familiar word in the Mclroe lexicon, ¢1¢’"!8f0' W"i0"8 0P¢’""i0"5- Below 11"’ W0 View-Y ofand it has a solid foundation based on experience. B05611! l"~"""b1)’P’0¢‘¢’d""¢‘5-Since Melroc was formed, its sales volume has grownfrom less than $500,000 in 1948 to an estimated $16million in l967, making it North Dakota's largestmanufacturer. Concomitantly, the economics ofGwinner. Sargent county and the state have benetedgreatly. lf even a fraction of the Melroc touch is ex-erted at the Reiten company, the people of Coopers-town have much to look forward to. E] \ ‘Y

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THE NORTHWEST L3,”, "6 u. s. POSTAGE

ms NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY P/‘JDST. PAUL MIN‘.

ST. PAUL MIESOTA 55101 "M" N°- I"

Rewm Reuuesued

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