nineteen-thirties
1931 Caterpillar's first Diesel Sixty Tractor rolls off the assembly line in
East Peoria, Illinois
1936 Howard Peterson founds Peterson Tractor & Equipment Company (acquired
from Robinson Tractor) in the San Francisco Bay Area with stores in SF and Oakland read more
1936 Peterson's first advertisement comes out in Western Construction Magazine more
1937 Oliver DeSilva is Peterson's first customer on the account books
1937 Peterson moves headquarters to brand new facility at Watkins St. in Hayward, CA read more
1939 Golden Gate International Expo opens on Treasure Island celebrating the
building of SF Bay Bride and Golden Gate Bridge - all were constructed with CAT equipment
nineteen-forties
1940 Caterpillar's product line now includes motor graders, blade graders, elevating graders, terracers and electrical generating sets
1941 Peterson hears the "news" about Pearl Harbor being attacked while hosting a duck hunt and customer dinner at a duck club in Benicia read story
1942 U.S. army uses Caterpillar track-type tractors, motor graders, generators sets
and a special engine for the M4 tank in WWII read story
1942 Peterson moves headquarters across town to a new facility in Hayward at the corner of A and Soto streets that takes up an entire city block
1943 Buster Peterson comes to Peterson and starts designing customized tractor innovations more
1946 First self-propelled DW10 scraper introduced
1948 Howard Peterson moves his business to new HQ facilities in San Leandro, CA
over Labor Day weekend where they remain at present (2008) read story |
