History

HISTORY OF WIND RIVER DEVELOPMENT

The history of Wind River Development Co. must commence with the initial faltering steps in bringing industry into Riverton and those who took those steps without expectation or reward.

In 1964, Roy Peck, Co-publisher of the Riverton Ranger, contacted Frank Andrews, a local attorney, and asked Andrews to meet with him “on the bank corner”. Since there was only one bank in Riverton at the time, the meeting soon took place. Roy said that something had to be done to invigorate Riverton; that the town needed clean industries with good payrolls, and that the two of them should start the effort.

From 1964 through 1967, many ideas were pitched and looked at by Frank, Roy and other local business individuals to include a reinforced plastic pipe company from California and a machine tool company out of Ohio but none were right to invest and bring to Riverton.

STYLE HOMES

Bill Bickel had been approached by a man who owned a modular home construction company, who needed capital.  A meeting was held in the basement of the Teton Hotel by several businessmen. It was decided to start a corporation to provide risk capital to this business.  Twenty people each put up $1,000.00 each, and on January 26, 1965 Riverton Industrial Development Co. (RIDCO)- was born.

The business and the manager were moved to Riverton and located on land owned by Bickel south of town. Bickel had purchased a large tract of land which was used to treat railroad ties. He continued this business for several years but the market for treated ties had dried up and the land was unused.

It soon became evident why the previous owner had failed. He broke the business and left.  Bickel purchased the assets and commenced building modular homes. The new company was named Stylehomes. He hired Bob Winter, a Casper attorney, to be the president and chief operating officer. From this time forward, Stylehomes was very successful, building and installing hundreds of homes throughout Wyoming.

By this time, Roy Peck had been approached by Ray Larson, living in Broomfield, Colorado, who claimed he had perfected a system to input data into a computer using an IBM Selectric typewriter keyboard. This was “state of the art” work and could revolutionize the computer industry. Prior, all data was coded into a computer using punch cards, which was slow and labor intensive.

Ray was completely broke. RIDCO furnished some money to pay Ray’ debts and purchase his equipment, and Riverton people helped him move his family and laboratory to Riverton.

Roy arranged for a house to be furnished for the Larsons and the second floor of the Tonkin building was made available to his work space. His operation was incorporated as Wyoming Electrodata, stock authorized and people hired for stock and money.

In 1967 Ray Larson was approached by a New York business man who wanted to invest in his business venture.

This man said he would finance the venture up to one million dollars, but wanted a building that would provide adequate space for the manufacture of his device.

On June 23, 1967, Wind River Development was incorporated. An initial board of directors was elected.

They were: F. M. Andrews, Jr., Bruce McMillan, W. E.(Bill) Bickel, Dr. B. D. Stack, Harmon Watt, Harry McMillan, R. Max Hursh, Lowell Morefeld, Herb Lehman, Del Crouse and Davis Martin.

The organizational meeting was held July 7,1967. By-laws were adopted. F. M. Andrews, Jr. was elected President, Dr. Stack Vice-President and Bill Bickel sec/treasurer.  The company was authorized 49,000 shares of common, non-assessable shares. A public offering was decided upon, shares to cost $250.00 each, one half to be allocated to capital and one half to capital surplus.

The purpose of the corporation was to promote the growth of Wyoming Electrodata.  It was proposed that Wyoming Electrodata be merged into a new corporation to be structured to qualify under Sec. 502 of the Small Business Act, and qualify for federal loans.

Ray Larson informed the board that he had located a major investor who would put one million dollars into Ray’s invention, but required that there be a building adequate for manufacture. Ray had insisted that the manufacture of his invention be in Riverton.

The finance committee met Sept. 9, 1967 with Dr. Palmberg, President of CWC, J. T. Banner, a Laramie engineering firm who had designed and built many of the university’s buildings, Roy Peck, co-publisher of the Riverton Ranger, and Mr. Jack Holmberg, of the Small Business Administration. Mr. Holmborg informed the group that the SBA could fund our project up to $350,000 with 50% bank participation and company money.

By Sept. 20, the location of the building on CWC Trust land was settled and rental of $30.00/month agreed on for a five year term. The rent was calculated on a 5% return on the colleges cost of land, or $800 per acre, then $50.00 per month for ten additional years.

Once the board was satisfied that there was sufficient credit available, the company swung into gear.

A new company, to comply with the requirements of the SBA was incorporated and named Datel of Wyoming, Inc. Wyoming Electrodata was merged into Datel.

By September 20th, J. T. Banner and Associates had drafted a plan for the proposed 40,000 foot building to be 200’x200′. He told the Board that he would prepare the specs for all the mechanical details, and would oversee the work. Banner was awarded a contract for his services, as he had worked up to then without contract.

Central Wyoming College had prepared a subdivision plan on land adjacent to the college acquired from the Mund family, to be named the CWC Technical Research Park. Wind River was the first tenant, a land lease was executed for the proposed building, and a building lease entered into with Datel. The Board approved sale of the shares of stock.

By October 19th a loan application had been submitted to the Small Business Administration and approved for $220,000. A loan from the First National Bank was approved for $220,000. Don Campbell was the low bidder of $315,583 and a contract awarded to him.

On January 31, 1968, Rollie Connell, Riverton City Engineer, submitted plans for the extension of the city water and sewer lines from Park Ave., along College View Drive to the building site. Wind River’s share of the cost was $15,891. Wind River used $30,000 to purchase new equipment and tooling, and leased to Datel with a purchase agreement. Datel commenced operations, and employed between 75 and 150 people, with a maximum estimated payroll of $5,000,000.

In 1972, the directors were told Datel had been sold to Harris Intertype, who planned to move the business to Cleveland. Frank Andrews, Roy Peck and Harmon Watt went to Cleveland to meet with the president of Harris Intertype to try to prevail on Harris to continue the plant in Riverton. Congressman Tino Roncolio was enlisted in this effort.

In March 1973, R. Max Hursh died. Don Strube was appointed to the board as his replacement.

At the annual shareholder meeting, guest speaker was Pere Soholm, V.P. of Harris Intertype, who informed the members that Harris had decided to retain the facility in Riverton. Subsequently, Harris decided to not continue the Riverton operation. The building was closed and remained vacant for several years. Several attempts to find a suitable rental failed. The company was using it’s surplus to make the mortgage payments. Space in the building was leased out to Katherine Grey, Inc., Riverton School District and The Brunton Company. Attempts were made to lease the building to the Telephone Company and to Texas Instruments.

LRC

In August 1973, Ray Larson had perfected a new high speed printer and incorporated as LRC Inc. Negotiations were being conducted with Texas Instruments, who was interested in acquiring the printer. The building remained empty. Ray was loaned $80,000, most of which had been borrowed from the First National. The building continued to be vacant. The building was offered to Texas Instruments at $1.50/foot. TI only wanted 15,000 feet, and wanted a paved parking lot and lower rent.

On December 19, CWC proposed a street extension of Sunset through the lease. The board voted against this.

For many months, various attempts were made to rent the building. The Telephone Company was offered the building but wanted substantial remodeling. Ray Larson’s proposed merger with Texas Instruments was still pending. It was learned that the officers of LRC had issued themselves a large quantity of stock in LRC and sold out to T.I. Frank Andrews filed suit against the officers for violation of the Securities Rules against issuing shares to officers without adequate consideration to the company.

May 8th 1975, the City wanted us to buy 169 acres of the airport hill land from Harry Swisegood for $50,000, for land for a crosswinds runway.

July 2, while there is no agreement with the City concerning the land for a crosswinds runway, it was decided to sell the city as much land as it needed at our cost, $315/acre. Dr. B. D. Stack resigned, as did Lowell Morefeld.  John Benesch and Ivan Sackman were appointed replacements.

October,1975, Nick Kondur and Allen Hayworth, from LRC were introduced. Mr Kondur stated that LRC might need the entire building. Rental was set at $1.10 per sq. ft. for one half the building.

February 4,1976. LRC is employing 60 people. A five year lease was agreed on with LRC to maintain the heaters and air conditioners and outside grounds while Wind River Development would maintain the sprinkler system.  In addition, LRC wanted the lot paved at a cost of $40,000 with LRC to pay 1/2. Turner’s low bid of $29,785 was approved. The job was scaled down to $10,000, being $5000.00 each.

August 4. The city proposed an industrial park adjacent to our airport land with a loop water line across our land. The company borrowed $25,000 to finance the bank and SBA loans. LRC was having problems. LRC was suing Kondur over a printer patent.

Frank Andrews and Nick Kondur started International Technology Resources Inc with a $250,000 Reg “A” offering. They then started a Brokerage house in Denver, named “N.Donald and Co”. Frank Andrews was the “and company”. Konder and Andrews started ITR Petroleum Company with a $250,000 Reg “A” offering.

Sept. 28. The City had dropped it’s plans for a subdivision at the airport. Wind River decided to hold off on a subdivision plan.

March 8,1978. Mayor Moffat stated the City would allow water taps on the airport bench. Paul Radasch was hired to draw up plans. A subdivision plan was approved and contracted with Steen and Delapp for paving, curb and gutter of the whole project for $138,546.

April 16,1982. No sales on the airport land. Interest to date was $58,000 and running $118.00 daily.

We owed the bank $319,000 on the airport project, $87,800 for re-roofing the building, an operating note of $5743 and the SBA note of $94,743. Debt service is running $3500 per month, plus insurance and taxes of $800 per month. We are presently renting to Eaton Products for $5000 per month. By Nov. 1982, two airport lots had been sold for $19,999 each. The company sold the city the crosswinds runway land to the City at our cost. Airport lots were not salable, as the F AA would not permit access to the runway. U.S. Energy offered $180,000 for the land which was approved.  The company lost $100.000, including interest. Joe Dennis from Eaton Products was present at the annual meeting and told the shareholders “we are here, we are staying here.”  Eaton employed 154 people and had a payroll of 2.6 million dollars.

Roy Peck’s death was reported to the shareholders. Roy was a moving force in getting new business into Riverton, including Eaton Products. He is sorely missed by his friends and business associates.

Ivan Sackman withdrew as a board member in favor of nominating Barbara Richards, who was duly appointed.

Sept. 27 ,1984, a new lease was negotiated with Eaton Corporation, rental to commence at $5400/ mo. in 1985 to increase annually in $400 monthly increments to $6600.00 through 1989.

On March 29,1989, the Treasurer advised the Board that the SBA loan of $220,000 had been fully paid and mortgage releases delivered to the County Clerk.

In 1988, Eaton Corporation sold it’s interest in the Riverton business to D.H. Print, which included some former owners of Datel then living in California, and a few local engineers. Some of the names include Don Holmes, Bob Wilcezeski, Nick Kondur and Bob Burkholter.

In 1995, the roof was leaking badly and a decision was made to re-cover the roof with a blown-on foam. Unfortunately, a hail storm punctured the roof in several places. Moisture leaked into the holes and caused substantial leakage into the supporting plywood roof panels, threatening a complete collapse of the roof. The foam was completely removed and a new roof of corrugated sheet steel, 1/2′” decking, tarpaper and gravel was installed at a contract price of $230,608.

Unfortunately, in the course of removing the old foam and setting the new roof, Riverton experienced a major spring storm, laying down 6″ of very heavy, wet snow and a great deal of water ran into the building.  The moisture did a great deal of damage to D.H. Print’s tooling and work in progress.  A claim was made against Wind River, who claimed against the contractor’s insurer.  The contractor had taken out bankruptcy and left town. This was finally compromised by Wind River paying $15,000 and the insurer paying $15,000.

There was a space between the roof and the ceiling in the administration and engineering offices, which collected a great deal of the water off the roof. The ceiling tile collapsed, sending several gallons of water, and a feral cat, onto the desk of an engineer working there. It was a toss-up as to who was the maddest – the engineer or the cat.

In 1997. all the shareholders sold out to a French firm known as Axhiom Solutions. Most of the employees stayed on with Axhiom until Axhiom wanted to relocate the business to New York State.

The employees, mostly the engineers, wouldn’t leave Riverton, so they bought out Axhiom and continued to run the business as Pertech Solutions, Inc. In order to assist the new shareholders, Wind River entered into a new lease,waiving all rent for six months, then renting for $2500 per month for the next year, then $5000 each month for the next year, with ten percent increases annually through 2009.

BRUNTON

The Ainsworth Company, a very old and established firm who dealt in weights and measures, owned the patent and plans for the Brunton Compass. Ainsworth had in fact measured the first moon flight, keeping track of the space craft in it’s flight with a laser beam.

In 1972, it had fallen on hard times and wanted to sell the Brunton Compass. Riverton people learned of this and felt it could be something that could be made and marketed out of Riverton. Frank Andrews went to Denver and negotiated a contract with Ainsworth to purchase the patent and all tools and tooling for $200,000. Brunton, Inc., was incorporated in Wyoming in July 1972. Frank Andrews and Harmon Watt were the incorporators and first directors.

On his return to Riverton, a limited public offering was prepared to sell $250,000 worth of shares in the new company. The shares were sold and the offering closed. Jack Larson had investigated the marketing possibilities of the compass and bought the shares not taken up by Riverton people, gaining control of the Company. The Denver people were paid off and the business loaded up and shipped to Riverton. It was placed in a building owned by U.S.Energy, which became the manufacturing and marketing headquarters. Jack put Hal Herron in charge as President. Hal worked very hard to continue to develop Brunton’s market and enlarged it to carry knives, binoculars and spotting scopes

Jack made a tender offer for all Brunton shares to be exchanged for cash or U.S. Energy shares. This was completed. U.S. Energy sold out to a Swedish firm, Silva Sweden, who was in the business of manufacturing and marketing ship’s compasses and foul weather gear. Much of the product was out-sourced to Estonia and Lithuania, across the sea from Sweden.  We learned that the new owner, Lars Gullickson, intended to move the operation to his plant in Stockholm.

A contingent from Riverton went to Sweden to meet Mr. Gullickson, and to convince him to keep the operation in Riverton. By this time, it employed 75-80 people and grossed about $5 million dollars. It was very important to Riverton, and vital to Wind River Development. The city was represented by Mayor Bill and Jean Eichler and the present Chamber of Commerce secretary, Bob Peck and Joanne Knobel for the Riverton Ranger, Frank and Beverly Andrews for Wind River Developement, Chuck and Cathy Guschewsky for CWC Foundation and Roger Bower, for the State of Wyoming, Wyoming Business Council.

Interestingly enough, the group that traveled with Mayor Eichler went via Los Angeles and arrived in Stockholm non-stop, while the remainder of the group went through Denver, where they were  grounded for five hours, missed their flight to Holland, stayed in Washington D.C. overnight, then to Brussels, Oslo, and finally to Stockholm a day late.

Mr. Gullickson was very gracious, but said that Brunton was for sale, particularly the building he had acquired with the purchase of Brunton, and he wanted his money out of it.  A month later, Mr. Gullickson visited us in Riverton, and we were all graciously hosted at the Guschewsky home in Lander.

Idea, Inc., a local not-for-profit corporation headed by Allen Moore, as president, proposed to build a $2,500,000 building for Brunton, using a $1.5 million dollar grant from the Wyoming Business Council and borrowing $1 Million from the First Interstate Bank of Riverton. The bank agreed to make the loan, but wanted Wind River Development to guarantee the loan. Wind River Development did agree and executed a guaranty for $1 million dollars for 5 years. Additionally, Gullickson wanted his money out of the Riverton building before signing a lease on the new building. In order to make the whole package fit, Wind River Development made an offer for the building of $225,000, less the cost of a new roof, estimated at $50,000. This was accepted, the money paid, the lease signed and Brunton moved into the new building.

At this time, Brunton employs 250 people and has $15 million in sales. Silva Sweden has been sold to Gerber corporation, which in turn is owned by Fiskar, Ltd., who makes and sells outdoor equipment worldwide.

Mark Sehnert, a board member, discovered that a Gillette engineering firm was looking for a building in Riverton.  The former Brunton building was offered at our cost, and Stetson Engineering, bought it and moved in.

Wind River’s lease from the CWC Foundation runs to 2012. CWC Foundation would like to lease the land to us for 30 years with the rents paid in advance. The new 30 year Iease is $39,000/acre. The college can get a match from the state equal to 1/2 of a new lease, which the Foundation will pass on to Wind River Developement. We only need 4.50 acres, so the rent for 30 years will be $103,000. Pending final agreement on the terms, Wind River believes this is acceptable.

In closing, it should be recognized that the continued success of Wind River is attributable, in the most part, to those businesses whose employees wanted to remain in Riverton, and invested in the companies. Wind River Development primarily furnished low cost facilities and financial aid to these businesses in their start-up period. Additionally, the help and participation of many people in putting these deals together and making them work must be given a great deal of credit.