Surprising North Dakota Originals

Among the many things that North Dakota is associated with and/or known for, are the products that have played a large role in changing the world as the pioneers knew it. From Cream of Wheat to bubble bath, this Midwestern powerhouse has cranked out a lot of noteable inventions, thanks to its creative, problem-solving residents. Here are two bigdeal inventions that often slip below the radar when talking about all the wonderful ideas and items that have come out of North Dakota in years past.

Skid-Steer Loader

Cyril and Louis Keller, Rothsay, Minnesota natives, owned and operated a fabricating and repair shop in Rothsay, Minnesota, in the 1950s. They had a reputation among locals: they helped repair and manufacture equipment for farmers in the area. In 1956, local turkey farmer Eddie Velo approached the brothers with a problem he hoped they’d help him solve. Velo was growing his operation into a large-production turkey farm, so he needed a piece of machinery that could clean a lot of manure while maneuver around the close-together posts in his barns. Tractors with loaders were too large and not easily maneuverable, and they were too heavy to operate on the second-floor levels of Velo’s barns. So, the Keller brothers went to work designing and eventually building the first compact loader. They delivered the prototype to Velo in 1957. After that, the demand for their new skidsteer among area farmers skyrocketed, and pretty soon the Keller brothers couldn’t keep up. To expand their production to meet demand, they partnered with four brothers who owned Melroe Manufacturing Company in Gwinner, North Dakota. The two parties agreed that Les, Cliff, Roger and Irv, the Melroe Brothers, would have exclusive manufacturing rights, while the Keller Brothers would be paid on a royalty basis. Melroe began mass-produced the compact loader while the Kellers worked with the company, continually developing and refining the design and traveling to sell the product and train dealers. In 1962, the M440 Melroe Bobcat went on sale, the world’s first true skid-steer loader (with fourwheel drive, this model’s front wheels could skid easily without a load and the back could skid easily with a full load). It was also the first model to be branded as “Bobcat” equipment, a name that originated with company advertising agent Lynn Bickett. Bickett had looked up “bobcat” in the dictionary, finding it defined as “Tough, quick, agile,” a perfect mascot and representation of the compact skidsteer loader the Kellers had invented.

After the launch of the MM440 Melroe Bobcat, the era of the compact equipment industry began. “Bobcat” became the leader in that industry, taking the name from their first-ever skid-steer model.

Cyril Keller retired from the Bobcat company in 1984 and Louis Keller worked for Bobcat until 1969. Louis continued to invent equipment at his shop on his farm north of Cogswell, ND, including the “Mini-Bob” skid-steer model, the first single stage ribbon auger snowblower and various attachments for the skid-steer. He died in 2010. Cyril died in October 2020.

License Plate Tabs

In the 1970s, Lenard Milo Mennes, a computer worker for the North Dakota Department of Motor Vehicles, was looking for a better, more convenient way to keep track of vehicles. Back then, drivers were required to get an entirely brand new license plate each year. Mennes thought of a way to make the process of vehicle registration and state identification easier: license plate

tags (or tabs, as we now know them). His wife, Evelyn, encouraged him to move forward with his idea, so he took his idea to the Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co. in Minneapolis to manufacture the first license plate tags in the world, thereafter to go to the State of North Dakota. The state enacted laws requiring vehicle owners to purchase tags and place them on their license plates each year, making things at the Department of Motor Vehicles much less headache-y and lowering the costs of operations (it got expensive for both the state and the residents to have to replace their license plates every year). Soon, other states across the country adopted Mennes’ method and put laws of their own into place requiring tabs on license plates. Though he was no doubt aware of the popularity of his invention, Mennes never got a patent for it, instead choosing to share it with everyone for free. He didn’t want to be rich— he just wanted to share his idea with people who could benefit from the invention’s convenience. In total, Mennes worked for 18 years as the head of the Computer Department of the North Dakota State Motor Vehicle Department. He died in 1995 and is buried at Fairview Cemetery in Bismarck. A stone monument with his name, birth and death dates, and brief summary of his monumental invention stands near his headstone.

The original skid-steer loader... license plate tabs—these two very different things changed the motor vehicle and compact equipment industries in big ways, and yet they’re just two examples of the many wow-worthy gamechangers created thanks to Midwest gumption and smarts.