Oliver Corporation
Charles City, Iowa
Part of my job as a technical writer was to take my turn at giving plant tours. All lower level management employees had to do this from time-to-time. Usually I didn't want to do it as I had publishing deadlines to meet but sometimes it was fun just to get out of the office for a few hours.
Usually I gave tours to High School shop classes but occassionally it would be a dealer with a customer who wanted to see his tractor built from beginning to end.
We used to give them a tour booklet at the beginning of the tour and I have been trying to get my hands on a copy of that booklet for a long time now. The booklet has some excellent pictures of the interior of the plant.
I cannot explain the feeling I used to have whenever I was out in one of the main shops. You just had to be there to feel and realize and appreciate the energy that was generated by the men and women who worked in the plant. It was amazing!
Now, nearly 40 years later, I realize how lucky I was to be in a position to conduct those tours. Believe me, I knew every nook and cranny of those 65 acres (17 acres under roof)!
When in full production, when I worked there, we had about 2500 people working in the plant during three shifts. I could be wrong on this but it seems to me that we were producing around 85 tractors per day.
And now, thanks to Sherry Schaefer of Oliver Heritage Magazine, I have the tour booklets that I remembered and have scanned them for your enjoyment. These booklets are from different periods in time and are characterized by the tractors that are featured in the centerfold pages. Oliver collectors may feel free to print them off from this website. Thanks Sherry for your valuable loan of the booklets! Oliver Heritage is a magazine that I read faithfully and highly recommend.Larry Morphew, Webmaster
Clicking on the following links will take you to slide shows of each tour booklet. If you do not wish to wait ten seconds between slides, simply click on the thumbnail picture on the left side of your screen to advance the enlargement.
Site Courtesy Morpheweb dot Com
Copyright 2007-2012