Hiedi Andersen
Restored ‘Crawler’ Prototype Part of Best Show on Tracks
WOODLAND, Calif. – A priceless piece of California’s rich agricultural construction history returned home Thursday after years of restoration back east.
The 90-year-old prototype of the first modern “crawler” tractor – a machine with special tracks designed to resist sinking into the rich soil of the Delta – came back to Northern California after nearly seven years in Minneapolis being painstakingly restored, piece by piece.
Created by C.L. Best in 1918 and 1919, the “bap-bap-bap” beat of the engine on the Best 60 No. 101A “crawler” tractor drowned out nearby conversations as it was carefully backed off the trailer that had hauled it from Minnesota to the Heidrick Ag History Center in Woodland. It’s arrival highlights preparations for The Best Show on Tracks, set for June 20 through 22 at the ranch of Best’s grandson, Dan Best II, just east of Woodland.
As the Best 60 was unloaded, museum docents, tractor enthusiasts, local media and Show planners stood in awe of the tractor whose significance has been hidden to most.
“Everybody knows Harvey Firestone, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford,” said Tom Madden of Paso Robles, the historic tractor’s current owner. “Few people know C.L. Best. Best owned the company that bears his name and was the Caterpillar chairman for the first 26 years. He was as much an industrialist as those three men. The roads and highways of California and the world would not be what they are today without (him). C.L. Best is to the construction and agriculture industry as those three men are to their industries.”
C.L. Best’s invention “revolutionized tractors,” Madden said. Before Best, tractors were really more primitive—some had wheels in front, large gears and chains, and exposed machinery that left them vulnerable to the elements. “101A was a really, really modern farm tractor. It was the future. Imagine going from a 4-cylinder Model T to a mid-’30s V-8 Ford.”
At the time the prototype was created, C.L. Best’s main competition was Benjamin Holt. But it was Best’s 60-horsepower “crawler” that took the lead. Soon, C.L. Best Mfg. in San Leandro was producing the top tractors, starting with the original, No. 101A, which was sold in June of 1919.
Nearly 70 years later, Best’s prototype piqued the interest of Minnesota resident Ed Claessen. While researching serial numbers on parts gathered to restore a Caterpillar 60 he had purchased, Claessen became intrigued by the “first truly track-type tractor.”
“I had bought a Cat 60 about 35 years ago,” he said. “I didn’t know much about them at the time, so I got interested and started doing some research.”He soon found out that C.L. Best’s prototype had originally been sold to a man named Milt Talbert. The Collinsville in the Montezuma Hills farmer used the tractor for nearly 60 years, taking “unbelievable care” of the machine, Madden said. “He used it on his farm and ranch, and also pulled a grader to keep up roads in that county,” Madden said.
Just prior to Talbert’s death in 1970s, his family sold the tractor to Smith Nursery in Lathrop, who had the tractor painted, but it didn’t run well, it was completely worn out. “When Mr. Smith died, the tractor just sat,” Madden said.
Then in 1988, Claessen located the Best 60 No. 101A — and in 2001, Madden purchased the tractor. “It was Friday the 13th — July, 2001,” he recalled.
Trusting Claessen’s attention to detail, knowledge of Caterpillar tractors and his particular interest in the Best 60, Madden partnered with Claessen — “the foremost authority of Best and Caterpillar 60s in the world” — to restore the machine. “Ed’s meticulous. I knew he wouldn’t compromise,” Madden said of the decision to send the tractor to Minneapolis in October 2001. “He’s so knowledgeable. We have a common love of history – and there’s so much of it wrapped up in this tractor.”
For Claessen, working on the machine was “an extreme honor.” “I knew I had to do it right” because of its historical significance, he said. The entire restoration took more than six years.
“It took 100 percent dismantling to get it back together in proper shape,” Claessen said. “There were times we’d hold up (on work) to look for parts or to find a qualified machine shop to make replica parts. And there were no compromises. There were times I had to start over or find a different machine shop to get exactly what I wanted.”
The end result is amazing — to both Madden and Claessen, and the Best family. “When we pulled into Dan (Best’s) ranch, he just stood in awe and said, ‘Wow. Do you know what you have there?’” said Madden. “I said, ‘Yeah, I do.’”
The Best 60 No. 101A prototype tractor will be one of hundreds of antique tractors at the Best Show on Tracks later this month.
Tom Madden with his Best Sixty 101A in 2001 before it was painstakingly restored by Ed Claessen
The Best Sixty 101A after restoration, being unloaded at the Heidrick Ag History Center in Woodland in June 2008
