90 Years & Still Growing: 1964 E&MJ Ad Showcases Lost Hills Mine

Today, as part of an occasional series entitled “90 Years & Still Growing …” highlighting Holloway and California ag history, we look back at a Clark Equipment ad from Engineering and Mining Journal in November 1964:

The ad highlights Holloway’s Lost Hills Mine with a photo of a Michigan Tractor Scraper that scraped 1 million tons of gypsum between 1959 and 1964. Since 1932, Holloway has been the leading supplier of soil amendments to the south Valley, scraping, delivering and spreading more gypsum than any other supplier.

Experience. Trust. Innovation. That’s Holloway.

Here is the text from that 1964 E&MJ ad:

Same scraper, but … 10,000 hours, 1,000,000 tons and 2 sets of tires later!

In between, this Michigan Tractor Scraper has consistently averaged 100 tons an hour for an owning and operating cost of less than $15 an hour!

The first photo was taken at the H.M. Holloway, Inc., gypsum mine near Lost Hills, Calif., in 1959. The second in 1964.

For five long years this 19-yard Michigan has worked an average 60-hour week removing overburen and mining gypsum. Conditions at the desert mine are dusty, very dusty. And daily temperatures reach as high as 120 degrees.

Yet, in that time, the Michigan maintained 82% availability. Fuel consumption for its 262 hp diesel has averaged 7 gals per hour.

And tires last from 2 to 3 years with one recap.

That averages $14.72 owning-operating costs per hour for five years.

At the same time, the unit and two others just like it have reduced operating costs to what was previously spent on track maintenance alone for crawler units. And they double the mine’s output.

In fact, the record has been so outstanding that a new 4-yard Michigan Model 175A Tractor Shovel was recently added to the spread. They expect equally good service from it.

That’s the history of what a Michigan Tractor Scraper can do. Have you investigated what it can do on your job?

Your Michigan Distributor will be glad to arrange a demonstration of any of the 3 sizes from 13.5 to 32 cu yards. See him soon.

Clark Equipment Company
Construction Machinery Division
2465 Pipestone Road
Benton Harbor 21, Michigan

You can read more about California ag history as part of Holloway’s 90-year anniversary celebration at hollowayag.com/90