Minnesota Machines
(Page 4 of 4)
January 2004
Bill Vossler
Another company that bamboozled its customers was Pan Motor Co. of St. Cloud, whose Pan Tank-Tread tractor was hyped in magazines and at tractor shows. However, only one machine was ever produced, and the prototype didn't have an engine mounted for months. Other less-than-stellar companies included the Dakota King Tractor Co. of Minneapolis, which was exposed in a Jan. 7, 1919, Better Business Bureau investigation:
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The Diamond Tractor Company was (L. A.) La Tond. He was all of it. He admits it. He had a pee hand, and could as easily have assumed the title of office boy (had there been an office) or president as that of chief designing engineer. La Fond, on his own statement, never designed a single tractor, which has been successfully marketed. As a 'tractor designing engineer,' his own creations - three tractors ... failed in inception ...
Two more of La Fond's tractor companies also never flew straight, the Dakota King Tractor Co. and the Hi-D Tractor Co. Besides those tractors, La Fond also designed the Pan tractor. La Fond was generously described in Pan Motor Co. literature as 'one of the greatest Tractor Engineering Experts in America ... chief designing engineer of the Pan Tank-Tread Tractor ... a man of wide experience in the farm tractor business ...' and formerly 'chief designing engineer' of the Dakota King Tractor Co., the Diamond Tractor Co. and the Hi-D Tractor Co. In fact, La Fond was a self-promoting huckster without the slightest record of success. His Pan, Dakota King, and Hi-D tractors were all busts, and the Diamond Tractor Co. consisted only of a sign in a Minneapolis office building's window in 1915.
Excluding a few bad apples in the bunch, however, Minnesota's numerous tractor companies that attempted to garner a share of the burgeoning tractor market hoped to live the classic American dream of self-determination. Although none of those 112 firms achieved long-term success, they stand as a testament to the pioneering nature of early Americans. Those companies may be gone, but their tractors still delight collectors who're lucky enough to find them in the barns and back 40s across America.
- Bill Vossler is a freelance writer and the author of several books on antique farm toys and tractors. Contact him at Box 372, 400 Caroline Lane, Rockville, MN 56569; (320) 253-5414;
e-mail: bvossler@juno. com
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