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Bobcat Company has manufactured its 750 000th skid-steer loader, reaching the milestone 50 years after the Melroe and Keller brothers partnered to introduce the Melroe self-propelled loader, later known as the Bobcat® skid-steer loader. The 750 000th skid-steer loader was manufactured at the Bobcat facility in Gwinner, North Dakota. Bobcat employees in Gwinner celebrated this milestone on Friday, August 15, with a special assembly line ceremony. The milestone was also marked during a public celebration of the Bobcat 50th anniversary on Saturday, August 16, in Gwinner. That celebration included a program featuring Yongmaan Park, chairman of Doosan Infracore, the parent company of Bobcat, and other Bobcat executives, as well as North Dakota Governor John Hoeven and members of the Melroe and Keller families. The celebration also showcased the Bobcat 50 Years Unleashed North American Road Tour, the 24th stop of a 25-city traveling exhibit of Bobcat history criss-crossing the United States and Canada this summer.
The commemorative 750 000th skid-steer loader was a model S205, with a rated operating capacity of 900 kg. Bobcat offers 12 models of skid-steer loaders. The smallest is the S70, with a 317 kg capacity and the largest is the S330, with a 1500 kg capacity. The history of the skid-steer loader dates back to the late 1950s, when Minnesota farmer Eddie Velo needed an agile, compact loader to clean his turkey barns. Two blacksmith brothers, Cyril and Louis Keller, worked together to meet Velo's needs and invented a small, two-wheel drive front-end loader with a rear caster wheel. In the summer of 1958, the Melroe brothers, owners of Melroe Manufacturing Company in Gwinner, learned of the machine and invited the Kellers to show the loader in the Melroe booth at the Minnesota State Fair. Fairgoers showed high interest in the loader, which persuaded the Melroes to purchase the rights to the machine and hire the Kellers to refine the design and put it into production. The company introduced the M60 Melroe Self-Propelled Loader in 1958 and an improved model, the M200, the following year. In 1960, the company introduced the M400, a machine with rear drive wheels instead of a caster wheel. The M400 was the first four-wheel drive skid-steer loader. In 1962, the "Bobcat" brand name and logo first appeared on the model M440, a completely new loader design sporting the distinctive coat of white paint with orange trim that remains to this day.
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Bobcat Manufactures 
Bobcat skid-steer loaders are the most popular brand on the market.
In February 2001, Bobcat produced the 500 000th skid-steer loader. "It
took Bobcat 43 years to produce 500 000 skid-steer loaders," said Rich
Goldsbury, president of Bobcat Americas. "It took just seven years
for Bobcat to produce another 250,000 skid-steer loaders. This is a testament
to the popularity and demand for our product by our customers and to the
commitment of our employees to deliver this product to the marketplace."
