Michigan was the earthmoving line of Clark Equipment Company, an American maker of industrial and construction machinery. Clark bought the Michigan Power Shovel Co in 1953 and built a new division around it for large-scale earthmoving equipment. The line stayed with Clark until 1982, when the wheel loader and dozer division was sold to Volvo.
Michigan loaders at a glance
| Brand | Michigan |
|---|---|
| Company | Clark Equipment Company, USA |
| Founded | 1916, by Eugene B. Clark in Buchanan, Michigan |
| Predecessor | George R. Rich Manufacturing Company, Chicago, 1903 |
| Michigan purchase | 1953, the Michigan Power Shovel Co |
| New division | large-scale earthmoving equipment |
| Brazilian plant | 1954, Valinhos: gears and truck transmissions |
| Loader and dozer division | sold to Volvo in 1982 |
| Later owners | Ingersoll Rand from 1995, Doosan International from 2007 |
| Since 2021 | part of the Hyundai Genuine group |
| Loaders in this collection | B, 55, 75, 125, 35AWS and L90 |
No Wikipedia article covers an individual Michigan model, so this page is based on the one article about Clark Equipment Company, the firm that owned the brand; the details could not be checked against a second source.
History of the Michigan loaders
1903–1919: the company behind the brand
The story of the Michigan loaders begins with Clark Equipment Company, which took its name from Eugene B. Clark. Its predecessor was the George R. Rich Manufacturing Company, founded in 1903 in Chicago by executives of the Illinois Steel Company. The company moved to Buchanan, Michigan in 1904, when the town’s chamber of commerce offered industrial rent and power on favourable terms. Clark, then an Illinois Steel employee, found the metallurgy of the firm’s main product, a railroad rail drill called the Celfor Drill, to be faulty, and he also found fault with the management and the basic operations; he corrected both after the two parties made him an equal partner. In 1916 he merged Rich Manufacturing, by then renamed Celfor Tool, with Buchanan Electric Steel Company and formed Clark Equipment Company. In 1919 a division called Clark Trucktractor Company was set up; it still exists as Clark Material Handling Company.
1953: Clark buys Michigan
From the 1920s until the 1960s Clark grew by buying other firms and so opening new markets. In 1953 it purchased the Michigan Power Shovel Co and developed a new division dedicated to large-scale earthmoving equipment; the machines of that division carried the Michigan name. Other purchases of the period included Hancock Manufacturing Company of Lubbock, Texas, a maker of scraper bowls, in 1966, and Melroe Manufacturing Co, now Bobcat Company. Abroad, Clark opened a plant in Valinhos, Brazil in 1954 to make gears and truck transmissions for the South American market; that works also produced lifts and construction machinery, and was later sold to Eaton Corporation.
1982: the loaders pass to Volvo
The company kept growing, but in the 1960s and again in the 1980s many of its businesses were sold. In 1982 Clark sold its wheel loader and dozer division to Volvo, and with it went the Michigan machines. Clark itself was acquired by Ingersoll Rand in 1995; in the same year Ingersoll Rand sold the company’s mechanical test laboratory, which still trades as Clark Testing in Buchanan, Michigan. In 1996 Ingersoll Rand gave two tons of Clark archives to the Berrien County Historical Association, and the Berrien County 1839 Courthouse Museum now keeps them. In 2007 Ingersoll Rand sold Clark Equipment Company, together with its Construction Equipment Group, to Doosan International of South Korea. In July 2021 Doosan Infracore was acquired by Hyundai Heavy Industries, which paid about $722.45 million for a 30% controlling stake; Doosan Infracore became a subsidiary of the newly created Hyundai Genuine group.
Design and features
- Earthmoving by design: the Michigan business was bought in 1953 to form a division dedicated to large-scale earthmoving equipment, not as an addition to an existing line.
- Roots in the shovel trade: the brand name came from the Michigan Power Shovel Co, the firm Clark took over.
- Part of a buying company: the line grew inside Clark Equipment at a time when the company was expanding through acquisitions from the 1920s to the 1960s.
- A separate sale: in 1982 the wheel loader and dozer division was sold to Volvo as one business, while other Clark activities stayed with the company.
Michigan loaders versions
- Michigan B: one of the Michigan loaders in this collection.
- Michigan 55: a loader of the line recorded on this site.
- Michigan 75: another Michigan machine listed here.
- Michigan 125: one of the loaders in the collection.
- Michigan 35AWS: a Michigan loader covered on this site.
- Michigan L90: the last of the six Michigan loaders gathered here.
All the Michigan machines on the site are gathered in the Michigan collection. The company that owned the brand is described in the article on Clark Equipment Company.
Video: Michigan A35
Video by fbgta on YouTube.
Sources
- Clark Equipment Company, English Wikipedia: company history, purchase of the Michigan Power Shovel Co, sale of the loader and dozer division to Volvo