Pioneer Tractor Co. Lives and Dies Full of Mysteries

摘要

People crossing the Mississippi River near Winona, Minn., in 1914 must have been surprised to glance down at the sandbars and spot a "war tank with a powerful gasoline engine and top speed of 10-15 mph," said George E. West, performing maneuvers in the shallow waters there. Perhaps they shouldn't have been. The machine in question was a prototype made by the Pioneer Tractor Mfg. Co. of Winona, an unusual company that was a leader in the highly-competitive tractor manufacturing world before 1920, and a company that would create a series of mysteries that remain unsolved today.