Tucker Sno-Cat
We’ve all seen the building on South Pacific Hwy, but I doubt most know of their rich history and how lucky we are here in the Rogue Valley to have such a vibrant “Made in America” company in our back yard.
This company started in 1942 and is family owned. The idea started with a young boy, E.M. Tucker, walking to school in the early 1900s through deep snow near Trail, Oregon. He started thinking of how to build devices to make his travel easier. He designed a motorized snow sled for starters, then of course, perfected his design until he had a vehicle that could travel over deep, soft snow with a minimum amount of mechanical trouble and expense.
The Sno-Cats are sold world-wide and utilized by companies such as Harry & David and are used for snow grooming, snow removal, search & rescue, ambulance, avalanche control, oil & gas exploration, mining, telecommunication operations, personnel & cargo carrier, and agriculture.
A fun story Dan shared is that E.M. Tucker grew up in an area where there was lots of Elk hunting. One of his designs was called the “Kitten.” The Kitten was a sno-cat that was made small enough to fit in the back of an old Ford truck and could be used to assist hunters in getting a downed Elk out of the hills.
For more information, check out their website at:
http://www.sno-cat.com/index.html
Thank you Dan for a great presentation.
