Information
Digital ID
snv002396-021
Early day steam tractor engines pulled trains of copper ore in the mountain areas and hauled borax in the desert. The big, high wheels helped the machines get out of holes and over obstacles. The idea of the crawler was 100 years old, yet it was Ben Holt who, in 1904, successfully demonstrated it as a unit. This treadmill type machine picked up and laid down it's own portable railroad as it moved over rocks, snow and mud.