Most cachers will know that Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of earthmoving and construction equipment.
Of all the names to call your company, CATERPILLAR must be one of the more unusual. Why name your business after a creepy crawly insect known for its ability to decimate vegetable gardens?
Here is the story of how it came about.
Holt Manufacturing Company and C L Best Tractor Company merged in 1925 to form the Caterpillar Tractor Company. These arch-competitors had both been formed in California in the latter decades of the nineteenth century to manufacture agricultural tools and equipment. Both would eventually move into building traction engines to pull farm implements.
In March 1905 Benjamin Holt and his nephew Pliny Holt, senior owner/managers, drove Mr Charles Clements out into the Californian countryside to take photographs of a prototype of a new Holt traction engine that was undergoing field trials. Clements had been engaged for a while as the official photographer for the Holt Manufacturing Company.
As they drove into a field Clements observed a traction engine moving in the distance. But it didn't seem to have any wheels. Clements would later write, "...(I was thinking) that the engine was on board a barge going through some canal, seemingly hidden by the heavy crop of volunteer barley."
As they got nearer to the machine and a better view was available, Clements was (in his own words), "...struck dumb with amazement." He goes on to write, "Jumping to my feet I exclaimed aloud, 'IF THAT DON'T LOOK LIKE A MONSTER CATERPILLAR.' " Mr Benj. Holt reddened at the remark and smilingly asked, 'What makes you think that?' I answered, 'Why, even a child could make no mistake. Just watch the undulating movement as it creeps along.' "
The traction engine was running not on wheels but on prototype self-laying tracks (what we now call 'crawler tracks' or 'caterpillar tracks'). The 'undulating movement' referred to by Clements was the movement of the tracks as they rotated.
So what was the advantage of self-laying tracks? Traction engines running on wheels worked well on hard, dry ground but on soft soils they would quickly bog. A self-laying 'crawler' track spreads the weight of the machine to improve flotation on soft, boggy ground and the grousers on the tracks bite into the ground to provide incredible traction on loose or slippery surfaces.
On 2 August 1910 Holt trademarked the name "Caterpillar" and on 1 May 1915 Clements swore an affadavit in which he told the story of how the name came about. His words above are taken from that.
Upon the Holt / Best merger the resulting company was named the Caterpillar Tractor Company - that's how the world's largest manufacturer of earthmoving and construction machinery came to be named after a creepy crawly.
Caterpillar Inc (as the company is now called) today leans towards the shortened "Cat" trademark.
2025 (next year as the cache is published) is the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Caterpillar Tractor Company and the Wheels at Wanaka show at Easter is aiming to set a world record for the most number of Caterpillar machines in a parade. Be there.
Disclaimer: The CO has no affiliation to any company or person mentioned on this page. This cache exists solely to explore the history behind the unusual name of a widely known company.
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