Ground Ripper - Fort Missoula, MT
Posted by: 
T0SHEA
N 46° 50.564 W 114° 03.759
11T E 723961 N 5191877
This ripper is in the collection of vintage machinery and tractors at Fort Missoula in Missoula, Montana.
Waymark Code: WMM0DD
Location: Montana, United States
Date Posted: 06/26/2014
Views: 3
Fort Missoula, for nearly a century a military fort, is now a National Historic Place and park. In the park are a few of the pre 20th century buildings from the original 1877 fort and many buildings from the early 1900s. They have an eclectic collection of large artefacts, including machinery and tractors, a lookout tower, railroad engine and cars, a tipi burner, the old Drummond, MT RR station, an old school and an old mission, artillery and a historical museum. It's a great place to spend an afternoon or a whole day.
This ripper can be found near the northeast corner of the tipi burner in the machinery display area.
If one needs to tear up hard ground or even pavement this simple tool can come in real handy. Designed to be pulled behind a tractor, preferably a crawler tractor, it is lowered to the ground, the crawler started forward, at which time the ripper will dig itself deep into the ground. As the crawler moves forward the ripper will tear up and loosen the ground it encounters, making it much easier to be dug by other equipment.
Given that the majority of crawlers are Caterpillars and Caterpillars are painted yellow, it's no accident that this ripper is, as well. If manufactured after the late 1930s this ripper could have been built by Caterpillar, but prior to that Caterpillar made no attachments for its tractors. Result - it's anybody's guess as to who manufactured it and when it was manufactured.
