“The Goal”          

To preserve the history of the Bobcat skidsteer loader, as accurately as possible, we have gathered machines from every stage of development along with memorabilia and documents.  We have established a small permanent display at the Sargent County Historical Society/Museum in Forman, ND, which is close to the Bobcat manufacturing facility in Gwinner, ND.
 
We had a temporary display located at the State Historical Society Heritage Center in Bismarck, ND.  Once this temporary display reached its end the State Historical Society Heritage Center created a smaller permanent display of one historic loader in their main museum area.

We had begun early planning on the process to create a larger more inclusive display at the Sargent County Historical Society Museum that may have required a new building.  Unfortunately, the past winter was not a friendly winter.  During the last snowstorm of the winter the snow collapsed the roof of building three.  Our smaller display is in building two. Now there is a focused fund-raising effort for a building to replace the damaged building.  The SCHS has made a proposal that if we helped raise money for a building replacement, we could have enough room in the new building for a more inclusive Bobcat history display.  This has sparked a renewed effort to raise funding for a more inclusive larger display along with helping rebuild the destroyed building. The vision for the display would start with early Melroe Mfg history and early Keller Mfg history.  It would then continue into Bobcat history representing how it evolved from serial number one to where it is today.

You can be a part of preserving this history with a donation to the Sargent County Historical Society by clicking the following link. Then in the “Use this donation for” section pick “Skidsteerhistory fund” in the drop-down menu. This will ensure the donation will go toward the above mentioned goal.
PayPal Donation
OR
You can pay with a check or money order.  Make the check payable to Sargent County Historical Society.  In the Memo put: Skidsteer History Fund
  Send the checks to:

SCHS Skidsteer History Fund
8034 Hwy 32
Gwinner, ND 58040

The Sargent County Historical Society is a 501 C 3 organization, all donations are tax deductible if you qualify in your tax bracket.
Thank you for helping preserve the history of a machine that has revolutionized many industries and employed thousands of people all over the world, maybe even you!

Photos of the damaged building and the progress to date can be seen on Facebook by searching Sargent County Museum.  General information about the museum and artifacts can be seen at sargentcountymuseum.org

If you have additional historical information, please call 1-701-640-7019.