Robert McCulloch
Encyclopedia
Robert Paxton McCulloch (May 11, 1911 – February 25, 1977) was a Missouri
an entrepreneur
most notable for McCulloch chainsaw
s and purchasing the new London Bridge
and moving it to one of the cities he founded, Lake Havasu City, Arizona
.
. His grandfather, John I. Beggs
, made his fortune by implementing Thomas Edison
’s electrical powerplants in cities around the world, manufacturing and selling electric trolley cars
, and founding Milwaukee’s public utility system. McCulloch, along with his two siblings, inherited his grandfather’s fortune in 1925.
Two years after he graduated from Stanford University
, he married Barbra Ann Briggs, whose father was Stephen Foster Briggs
of Briggs and Stratton. His first manufacturing endeavor was McCulloch Engineering Company, located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There he built racing engines and superchargers. In his early 30s, he sold the company to Borg-Warner Corporation for US$
1 million.
McCulloch then started McCulloch Aviation; and, in 1946, he changed his company’s name to McCulloch Motors Corporation. Building small gasoline engines, his competitors included his in-laws and Ralph Evinrude
. Evinrude
led the market for boat motors, while Briggs and Stratton pulled ahead in the lawn mower
and garden tractor market.
In the 1950s, McCulloch started McCulloch Oil Corporation, which pursued oil and gas exploration, land development and geothermal energy.
In spite of Evinrude’s market lead, McCulloch continued to pursue the outboard market during the next decade. This led him to Lake Havasu in search of a test site. McCulloch purchased 3500 acres (14 km²) of lakeside property along Pittsburgh Point. In 1963, on the courthouse steps of Kingman, Arizona
, McCulloch purchased a 26 square miles (67 km²) parcel of barren desert, that would become the site for Lake Havasu City. At the time it was the largest single tract of state land ever sold in Arizona, and the cost per acre was under US$75.
To spur the growth of the city, in 1964 McCulloch opened a chainsaw manufacturing plant there. Within two years there were three manufacturing plants, with some 400 employees.
. By the early 1960s it was apparent that John Rennie's 1831 London Bridge
was gradually sinking into the River Thames
and the City of London Corporation decided that a new bridge was needed. Rather than demolish the existing bridge, they decided to auction the historic landmark.
When casting his bid for the bridge, McCulloch doubled the estimated cost of dismantling the structure, which was US$1.2 million, bringing the price to US$2.4 million. He then added on US$60,000, a thousand dollars for each year of his age at the time he estimated the bridge would be raised in Arizona. His gesture earned him the winning bid, although there was very little competition.
It took three years to complete the project. The structure was dismantled block by block, with each section marked and numbered. The granite pieces were stacked at the Surrey Commercial Docks, and then were shipped through the Panama Canal
, to Long Beach, California
. From Long Beach, the granite
blocks were trucked inland 300 miles (482.8 km). The bridge was reassembled by matching the numbered stones, and filling beneath the bridge with native soil for support during reconstruction.
The attraction was opened on October 10, 1971 with elaborate fanfare: fireworks, a parade, entertainment, and celebrities, such as Bonanza
's Lorne Greene
, and dignitaries such as the Lord Mayor of London.
With the purchase of the bridge, McCulloch accelerated his development campaign, increasing the number of flights into the city. At the time, the airport was located on the island. The free flights to Lake Havasu lasted until 1978, and reportedly they totalled 2,702 flights, bringing in 37,000 prospective buyers.
A popular urban legend is that McCulloch mistakenly believed that he was buying the more impressive Tower Bridge
. London bridge had been heavily marketed by the London Council in an effort to sell it worldwide. Ivan Luckin, the council member who sold the bridge has always stated that London sold the bridge honestly.
and the 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk
and Ford Thunderbird
F-Type had a McCulloch/Paxton Supercharger. The supercharger was also used as a CO2 Scrubber on Navy Submarines. The company produced one prototype automobile, with a hard top that retracted over the trunk, the Paxton Phoenix. The 1953 vehicle promoted alternative fuels and had a proposed steam engine. The division was sold in 1958, becoming Paxton Automotive
. The firm is still in business.
McCulloch’s diverse interests continued into the last years of his life. In 1971, the same year the London Bridge
officially opened, he built his first aircraft in Lake Havasu City. It was the McCulloch J-2
Gyroplane, a hybrid combination of helicopter and airplane, and was tested by NASA pilot James Patton, in the summer of 1973. His dream was to offer "an airplane in every garage", promoting a seemingly simple aircraft that was easy to fly and could take off from a driveway. Although he manufactured about 100 of the aircraft, the market never materialized.
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
an entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
most notable for McCulloch chainsaw
Chainsaw
A chainsaw is a portable mechanical saw, powered by electricity, compressed air, hydraulic power, or most commonly a two-stroke engine...
s and purchasing the new London Bridge
London Bridge (Lake Havasu City)
London Bridge is a bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, United States, that is the reconstruction of the 1831 London Bridge that spanned the River Thames in London, England until it was dismantled in 1967. The Arizona bridge is a reinforced concrete structure clad in the original masonry of the...
and moving it to one of the cities he founded, Lake Havasu City, Arizona
Lake Havasu City, Arizona
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 41,938 people, 17,911 households, and 12,716 families residing in the city. The population density was 974.4 people per square mile . There were 23,018 housing units at an average density of 534.8 per square mile...
.
Biography
Robert Paxton McCulloch was born May 11, 1911, in MissouriMissouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
. His grandfather, John I. Beggs
John I. Beggs
John Irvin Beggs was an American entrepreneur, industrialist and financier associated closely with the electric utility boom under Thomas Edison. He was also associated with Milwaukee, St. Louis, Missouri and other regional rail and interurban trolley systems...
, made his fortune by implementing Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
’s electrical powerplants in cities around the world, manufacturing and selling electric trolley cars
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
, and founding Milwaukee’s public utility system. McCulloch, along with his two siblings, inherited his grandfather’s fortune in 1925.
Two years after he graduated from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, he married Barbra Ann Briggs, whose father was Stephen Foster Briggs
Stephen Foster Briggs
Stephen Foster Briggs was an American engineer, co-founder of the company manufacturing Briggs & Stratton small internal-combustion engines and founder of Outboard Marine Corporation....
of Briggs and Stratton. His first manufacturing endeavor was McCulloch Engineering Company, located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There he built racing engines and superchargers. In his early 30s, he sold the company to Borg-Warner Corporation for US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
1 million.
McCulloch then started McCulloch Aviation; and, in 1946, he changed his company’s name to McCulloch Motors Corporation. Building small gasoline engines, his competitors included his in-laws and Ralph Evinrude
Ralph Evinrude
Ralph S. Evinrude was an American business magnate best known for being the Chairman of Outboard Marine Corporation, and the husband of singer and entertainer Frances Langford....
. Evinrude
Evinrude
Evinrude can mean:-*Evinrude Outboard Motors**the company founder Ole Evinrude*The dragonfly in the 1977 Disney animated film, The Rescuers....
led the market for boat motors, while Briggs and Stratton pulled ahead in the lawn mower
Lawn mower
A lawn mower is a machine that uses a revolving blade or blades to cut a lawn at an even length.Lawn mowers employing a blade that rotates about a vertical axis are known as rotary mowers, while those employing a blade assembly that rotates about a horizontal axis are known as cylinder or reel...
and garden tractor market.
Chainsaws
It was the chainsaw niche that McCulloch dominated, beginning with the first chainsaw with his name on it, manufactured in 1948. McCulloch's chainsaw was used to cut lake ice and trees. By the next year, McCulloch’s 3-25 further revolutionized the market, with the one man, light weight chainsaw.In the 1950s, McCulloch started McCulloch Oil Corporation, which pursued oil and gas exploration, land development and geothermal energy.
In spite of Evinrude’s market lead, McCulloch continued to pursue the outboard market during the next decade. This led him to Lake Havasu in search of a test site. McCulloch purchased 3500 acres (14 km²) of lakeside property along Pittsburgh Point. In 1963, on the courthouse steps of Kingman, Arizona
Kingman, Arizona
Kingman is located in a desert climate on the edge of the Mojave Desert, but its higher elevation and location between the Colorado Plateau and the Lower Colorado River Valley tempers summer high temperatures and contributes to winter cold and rare snowfall. Summer daytime highs reach above 90 °F ...
, McCulloch purchased a 26 square miles (67 km²) parcel of barren desert, that would become the site for Lake Havasu City. At the time it was the largest single tract of state land ever sold in Arizona, and the cost per acre was under US$75.
To spur the growth of the city, in 1964 McCulloch opened a chainsaw manufacturing plant there. Within two years there were three manufacturing plants, with some 400 employees.
Purchase of London Bridge
In 1968, McCulloch was searching for a unique attraction for his city, which eventually took him to LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. By the early 1960s it was apparent that John Rennie's 1831 London Bridge
London Bridge
London Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames, connecting the City of London and Southwark, in central London. Situated between Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Tower Bridge, it forms the western end of the Pool of London...
was gradually sinking into the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
and the City of London Corporation decided that a new bridge was needed. Rather than demolish the existing bridge, they decided to auction the historic landmark.
When casting his bid for the bridge, McCulloch doubled the estimated cost of dismantling the structure, which was US$1.2 million, bringing the price to US$2.4 million. He then added on US$60,000, a thousand dollars for each year of his age at the time he estimated the bridge would be raised in Arizona. His gesture earned him the winning bid, although there was very little competition.
It took three years to complete the project. The structure was dismantled block by block, with each section marked and numbered. The granite pieces were stacked at the Surrey Commercial Docks, and then were shipped through the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
, to Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
. From Long Beach, the granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
blocks were trucked inland 300 miles (482.8 km). The bridge was reassembled by matching the numbered stones, and filling beneath the bridge with native soil for support during reconstruction.
The attraction was opened on October 10, 1971 with elaborate fanfare: fireworks, a parade, entertainment, and celebrities, such as Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
's Lorne Greene
Lorne Greene
Lorne Greene , was the stage name of Lyon Himan Green, OC, a Canadian actor.His television roles include Ben Cartwright on the western Bonanza, and Commander Adama in the science fiction movie and subsequent TV Series Battlestar Galactica...
, and dignitaries such as the Lord Mayor of London.
With the purchase of the bridge, McCulloch accelerated his development campaign, increasing the number of flights into the city. At the time, the airport was located on the island. The free flights to Lake Havasu lasted until 1978, and reportedly they totalled 2,702 flights, bringing in 37,000 prospective buyers.
A popular urban legend is that McCulloch mistakenly believed that he was buying the more impressive Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, England, over the River Thames. It is close to the Tower of London, from which it takes its name...
. London bridge had been heavily marketed by the London Council in an effort to sell it worldwide. Ivan Luckin, the council member who sold the bridge has always stated that London sold the bridge honestly.
World records
- World's Largest Antique - The London BridgeLondon Bridge (Lake Havasu City)London Bridge is a bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, United States, that is the reconstruction of the 1831 London Bridge that spanned the River Thames in London, England until it was dismantled in 1967. The Arizona bridge is a reinforced concrete structure clad in the original masonry of the...
, Lake Havasu City, Arizona http://www.londonbridgeresort.com/history/london_bridge.html - World's Tallest Fountain - Fountain Hills, Arizona http://www.fountainhillsguide.com/attrac_fountain.htmlhttp://phoenix.about.com/od/attractionsandevents/a/fountain.htm
Companies founded
- McCulloch Motors CorporationMcCulloch (company)McCulloch Motors Corporation is a manufacturer of chainsaws. The company was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1943 by Robert Paxton McCulloch as a manufacturer of small two-stroke gasoline engines and introduced its first chainsaw in 1948, the Model 5-49....
- McCulloch Aircraft CorporationMcCulloch Aircraft CorporationThe McCulloch Aircraft Corporation was the aircraft division of the McCulloch Motors Corporation. McCulloch acquired Helicopter Engineering Research Corp in 1951. It manufactured two innovative helicopter designs — the tandem-rotor MC-4 and the J-2 autogyro.Rights to the twin-rotor MC-4...
- McCulloch Oil
- McCulloch Properties
- Paxton AutomotivePaxton AutomotivePaxton Automotive is a United States-based manufacturer of superchargers for automotive use. The company is the major proponent of the centrifugal type supercharger. Early products were offered under the McCulloch name. Some Paxton superchargers have been factory fitted, but most units sold have...
Cities founded
- Lake Havasu City, ArizonaLake Havasu City, Arizona-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 41,938 people, 17,911 households, and 12,716 families residing in the city. The population density was 974.4 people per square mile . There were 23,018 housing units at an average density of 534.8 per square mile...
- Fountain Hills, Arizona
- Pueblo West, ColoradoPueblo West, ColoradoPueblo West is a census-designated place in Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. It is part of the Pueblo Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 16,899 at the 2000 census...
- Spring Creek, NevadaSpring Creek, NevadaSpring Creek is a census-designated place in central Elko County, in northeastern Nevada in the western United States. It mainly serves as a bedroom community for the businesses and industries in and around the nearby city of Elko. It is part of the Elko Micropolitan Statistical Area...
Other inventions
McCulloch also developed a centrifugal supercharger for automotive use. At first, these were produced and sold under the McCulloch name; but, in 1956, the supercharger division was renamed Paxton Superchargers. Such notable cars as the 1954-55 Kaiser ManhattanKaiser-Frazer
The Kaiser-Frazer Corporation was the result of a partnership between automobile executive Joseph W. Frazer and industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. In 1947, the company acquired the automotive assets of Graham-Paige, of which Frazer had been president before the Second World War...
and the 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk
Studebaker Golden Hawk
The Studebaker Golden Hawk is a two-door pillarless hardtop coupe type car produced by the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana between 1956 and 1958.-Styling:...
and Ford Thunderbird
Ford Thunderbird
The Thunderbird , is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United States over eleven model generations from 1955 through 2005...
F-Type had a McCulloch/Paxton Supercharger. The supercharger was also used as a CO2 Scrubber on Navy Submarines. The company produced one prototype automobile, with a hard top that retracted over the trunk, the Paxton Phoenix. The 1953 vehicle promoted alternative fuels and had a proposed steam engine. The division was sold in 1958, becoming Paxton Automotive
Paxton Automotive
Paxton Automotive is a United States-based manufacturer of superchargers for automotive use. The company is the major proponent of the centrifugal type supercharger. Early products were offered under the McCulloch name. Some Paxton superchargers have been factory fitted, but most units sold have...
. The firm is still in business.
McCulloch’s diverse interests continued into the last years of his life. In 1971, the same year the London Bridge
London Bridge (Lake Havasu City)
London Bridge is a bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, United States, that is the reconstruction of the 1831 London Bridge that spanned the River Thames in London, England until it was dismantled in 1967. The Arizona bridge is a reinforced concrete structure clad in the original masonry of the...
officially opened, he built his first aircraft in Lake Havasu City. It was the McCulloch J-2
McCulloch J-2
-Related content:Related development:Comparable aircraft:Designation sequence:-References:*...
Gyroplane, a hybrid combination of helicopter and airplane, and was tested by NASA pilot James Patton, in the summer of 1973. His dream was to offer "an airplane in every garage", promoting a seemingly simple aircraft that was easy to fly and could take off from a driveway. Although he manufactured about 100 of the aircraft, the market never materialized.
Sources
- History of McCulloch Oil Corp.
- http://havasumagazine.com/history_of_lake_havasu_city.htm History of Lake HavasuLake HavasuLake Havasu is a large reservoir behind Parker Dam on the Colorado River, on the border between California and Arizona. Lake Havasu City sits on the lake's eastern shore. The lake has a capacity of . The concrete arch dam was built by the United States Bureau of Reclamation between 1934 and 1938...
Original article by Bobbi Ann Johnson Holmes at http://havasumagazine.com/history_of_lake_havasu_city.htm