Caterpillar History Lesson

In the final year of my school days back in 1977, we were asked to do a project on a topic which was of interest to us. Anyone who really knows me would tell you that at the time I was only interested in three things, ice hockey, earthmoving machinery and girls, the latter of which only ever got me into trouble, something that has continued to this day!

It might come as no surprise that in fact I chose to do a project on earthmoving machinery, in which I focussed on the Caterpillar Tractor Company and how it came to being following the merger of two great American entrepreneurs Benjamin Holt and Daniel Best. The story is an incredible tale on how the two companies merged to create one of the most famous and widely recognisable construction machinery manufacturing brands in the world.

I came across this video, entitled Blazing a Trail: A Century of Tracks, over the weekend as I sheltered from Storm Dennis and it brought back so many wonderful memories from my school days when I was working on the project.

I hope you will find it as interesting as I did.