Page 423 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

has hitched two D8 Caterpillar tractors side by side to create a gigantic new land clearing machine. The 270-horsepower ‘Super Cat’ will be used with a special 16-ft bulldozer blade to do speed clearing work on Trisdale’s $2,484,360 contract for clearing approximately 7,855 acres in the Hungry Horse reservoir area. Mechanics Gerald McDonald and Frank Janicke are shown putting the finishing touches on the giant machine in the shop of the Westmont Tractor Company in Kalispell [Mon- tana]. The original idea, which involves eliminat- ing one track from each Cat, bolting the machines together with specially designed tie plates, and coordinating controls for one-man operation, was developed by the Peterson Tractor Co., San Lean- dro, Calif.”4
Western Construction News, a leading trade publi- cation of the time, gives a clue to the birth order. “The Twin Cat is currently getting its first tough operating tests at Hungry Horse Dam in Mon- tana. This biggest bulldozing tractor of them all is being used by J.H. Trisdale, Inc. of Redding, California, for clearing 7,800 acres in the Hungry Horse Reservoir area. At the present time, two Twin Cats are in existence: one at Peterson’s shop, which was the original test model, and the one now being used by Trisdale at Hungry Horse Dam. To
construct the Hungry Horse unit, conversion parts and blueprints were shipped to the local Caterpil- lar distributor at Kalispell, Montana—Westmont Tractor & Equipment Co. Two new D8 tractors were combined in the Westmont shop. A special blade 21 feet 8 inches wide was manufactured by Trisdale at his Project City, California, shop and shipped to Hungry Horse for attachment to the unit.”5
John Trisdale was one of two California con- tractors who wowed general contractor Gener- al-Shea-Morrison with his innovative clearing methods. Trisdale, along with F.L. “Red” Wix- son—both of Redding, California—came up with a plan that ultimately netted them the entire clear- ing contract. First, they built five 8-foot diameter hollow steel balls, each weighing 41⁄2 tons, attached to 200 feet of cable strung between two tractors. The steel ball was attached by swivel connectors for flexibility and kept the cable 4-feet above ground to avoid catching on tree stumps and slowing them down. The simple yet ingenious plan—dubbed Operation Highball—worked beautifully. After the land was properly logged of 80 million board- feet of timber, they mowed down the leftover small trees, snags, and brush in teams of two. By the end of one season, they’d been able to power through
Left to right: Assembling Hungry Horse Dam Twin in Cat dealer’s shop in Kalispell, MT in May 1950; Twin D8 at Hungry Horse Dam construction site, 20 miles northeast of Kalispell, Montana in 1950.
4 “Super Cat for Dam Area”, Kalispell Daily Inter-Lake News, May 4, 1950, p1.
5 “Twin Cat at Work Clearing Hungry Horse Reservoir Area”, Western Construction News, June 15, 1950, p99-100.
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