Page 424 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

Top left, clockwise: Welder working on giant 21-ft rake for Trisdale’s Twin D8; One of the giant steel balls used in clearing contract;
John Trisdale; Hungry Horse Twin at work
7,210 acres, to everyone’s amazement.
Buster’s Cat Twin D8 was the second innovation they used at Hungry Horse Dam. “Trisdale put two D8s side-by-side and welded them together into one unit, then fastened a 21-foot blade with thirteen teeth across the front. One man operates the ‘D-16.’ With 270 hp behind the blade, there is virtually nothing that this powerful rake can’t move. It does the work of three separate units.”6 By September 1952, both contractors had cleared a total of 14,695 acres.
While firsthand accounts are well past their expi- ration date, Lee Hill remembers hearing stories about his uncle, John Trisdale, and the Twin Cats at the Hungry Horse Dam. According to Hill, “After they knocked everything down and exposed the roots, they’d come through there with the Peterson-built tractor [Twin] and clean up the rest. The brush rake on it would hook all those roots and jerk them out of the ground. I remember seeing pictures of them in Trisdale’s office in Red- ding.” Although the business is long gone, three of the giant steel balls still exist. One is at Hun- gry Horse Reservoir and one belongs to Wixson’s
6 “Bowling Down Forests for a Super Dam”, Popular Mechanics, August 1950, p90-94, 246-248. 422 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG