PETERSON CELEBRATES 70 YEARS

1936 - 2006 and still growing strong

November 2006 marked Peterson’s 70th anniversary as the Caterpillar San Francisco Bay Area dealership. Back in 1936, founder Howard Peterson, took the knowledge and wages he’d earned in the construction field working for his brother-in-law, RG LeTourneau, and turned them into a company of his own - Peterson Tractor & Equipment Company. Today, Howard’s vision is still going strong, now in the hands of his grandson, Duane Doyle. What started as a small five-county business has grown into four distinct divisions - Peterson Tractor Co., Peterson Machinery Co., Peterson Power Systems, and Peterson Holding Co. With twenty stores, and nearly 1,000 employees, Peterson now covers 85,000 square miles of territory, reaching from California’s central coast on up to central Oregon. And the next generation is, even now, learning and earning its way up the ladder.

Even before Howard opened his business, he was fabricating and welding for his brother-in-law, RG LeTourneau, the great 20th century industrialist and grandfather of the modern-day scraper. Ingenuity was normal operating procedure for the young teen who watched the heavy equipment industry evolve from the front lines of Stockton. When Best and Holt merged to form Caterpillar Tractor Co. in 1925, Howard was just nineteen. Six months later, he was busy moving dirt on the Crow Canyon job for RG with one of their prototype scrapers when Henry J. Kaiser drove up to watch, and then ordered three, launching them into the world of manufacturing. Ten years later, Howard launched his own business in the tractor repair industry.

Peterson field service was revolutionary in 1940s	Howard Peterson founded Peterson Tractor at 30	Heavy Duty Rippers designed for CA hardpan in 50s
Testing stretch-scraper to handle more CA dirt	Buster Peterson tests his new Quad D9s	Peterson's Cushioned Air Track

Peterson’s history is paved with a tradition of innovation and custom design. That ingenuity has helped distinguish Peterson within Caterpillar’s worldwide network of dealers, at one point even being dubbed their “West Coast Engineering Department”. That same inventive spirit still resides in the shops and hallways and hearts of our employees. It’s a characteristic that prompted Howard’s brother, Buster Peterson, to draw his first design - an engine spinner jig, in the 40s to make out-of-frame repairs, in the shop, more efficient. And his U-dozer, the first of three-dozen patents which Cat would later buy and incorporate into their product line. Since then dozens of designs have been forged in Peterson shops – from extended booms, log-loading systems, and landfill guarding packages that Cat now sells standard from the factory, to Peterson’s line of thumbs and buckets, to prototypic one-offs like an armored bomb-scraper, a 9.5-ton concrete cruncher and a tunnel conveyor system with a 9-ton backhoe arm. All were built to meet a customer’s specific need when the demand exceeded the traditional product offerings. And all were designed to help reduce our customer’s bottom line – the true test of innovation. This milestone year inspires a renewed commitment to our customers and the industry as we look forward to the next 70 years and beyond. And you can bet innovation and progressive thinking will play a major role in it.   

Customized hydraulic landfill tippers 1980s	Duane Doyle becomes 3rd gen owner 1995	Peterson remote-controlled Bomb Remediation machine