Miskin Scraper Works Inc. is a company that manufactures earth-moving scrapers. It was started in 1917 by Arthur R. Miskin in Ucon, Idaho. This is a story of how it began and what it is doing today.

In the early 1900s the farmers of Bonneville County, Idaho, had moved here, cleared their fields of sagebrush, and irrigated their fields by flooding them with water from the rivers and creeks that flowed onto the Snake River plains. Building the canals and roadways needed to do this was a difficult job that required moving dirt to form the shape needed for a canal with banks, or cutting down a hill to make a road. Their fields also had to be reshaped so the high places and the low areas could be changed to let the water flow evenly across their fields. Moving the dirt then was done by horses that pulled a device called a Fresno scraper.

(photo: Building the Conant Dugway Using Fresno Scrapers)

The Conant Dugway is a big gully, or small canyon, that connects the high hilly dry farms east of Ririe, Idaho, with the Snake River where it enters the small Conant Valley. In the early 1900s a winding road was built down this gully so that the newly arrived automobiles could travel from Idaho Falls to Swan Valley, and on to Wyoming’s Star Valley or Idaho’s Teton Valley. This road was referred to as the Conant Dugway.

(photo: Fresno Scraper)

The Fresno scraper was a big open-front bucket with a steel bracket attached to swivels on the ends and a handle on the back. Horses were hooked to the steel bracket to pull it and a man walked behind working the handle. Lifting the handle caused the bucket to bite into the earth and pick up a load of soil. Lowering the handle and holding it down allowed you to slide the scraper along with a load of soil until you were ready to dump it. Lifting the handle all the way up flipped the scraper up onto a pair of skids, dumping the load. It could then be pulled along, upside down and empty, on the skids, until you were ready to load it up again. The slip scraper could be pulled by a team of two horses for light duty earth-moving. But for heavier work in hilly country a team of four horses was required. The task for the man on the end of the handle was very hard and often dangerous work. He had to drive the horses while loading and unloading the scraper by lifting or lowering the handle. A full-loaded scraper was heavy and required a strong lift to flip it over and empty it.

The original Fresno scraper was large enough to require a team of two or four horses. It was very hard work for the human operator, who had to ride the long handle at the rear, tip it up to dig it into the soil to fill it, and pull it down so it would stop digging in and slide along to move the soil to where the operator wanted it, and then lift it up and over to empty it. These scrapers were used on the Conant Dugway for most of the jobs that required moving of soil.

(photo: Arthur R. Miskin)

Arthur R. Miskin had a job helping to build a canal in eastern Idaho. He used a scraper with a long handle on the back of the pan that made it dig, slide or dump. The team of horses pulled it while Arthur walked behind in the dust, controlling the pan with the long handle. Another operator had his pan catch on a rock and the long handle flipped up under his arm and threw him up onto the horses. They ran away tromping the poor fellow before the pan was dragged over him.

Arthur came home that night and exclaimed, “I can make a better scraper than that!” And he did.

(photo: horse-drawn Miskin Scraper)

It had wheels to haul a bigger load, a seat to ride on, and foot controls that left his hands free to hold the reins. It was an instant success wherever it was shown.

Arthur Miskin spent three years developing this scraper. He worked as a blacksmith forming the steel part, and without a welder, fabricated a working machine on his farm in Fairview, Idaho. He took his new scraper to York and Taylorsville showing farmers as he went. In three days he sold fifteen scrapers.

The Miskin Scraper Works in Ucon, Idaho was started as a result in 1917 and today is the world’s oldest manufacturer of scrapers for farm use.

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This horse-drawn Miskin Scraper is hooked to a Moline tractor which was made to pull equipment designed to be pulled by horses. It may have been the beginning of replacing horses with tractors. It had a gasoline engine of about fifteen horsepower and was sold as early as 1914.

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The tractor-drawn Miskin Scraper was developed so the operator could control the scraper from the tractor seat. The early tractors began replacing horses on the farm and on earth-moving projects.

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Miskin Scrapers were shipped to many places far from Ucon, Idaho. This picture shows them being used to make a levee by a river in Louisiana. The horse-drawn scrapers in the background are being pulled by mules.

(photo: tractor-drawn Miskin Scraper)

This improved tractor-drawn scraper is made to scoop up its load and dump it using ropes pulled by the tractor operator. The time this improvement was made is reflected by the automobiles in the background of the picture taken on the main street of Ucon.

(photo: Arthur R. Miskin (left) and Otto Fogelsong (right). This is in the old “Drug Store Building” probably taken in the early 1930s.

Manufacturing a machine from steel was a challenge in those early days. The parts had to be formed by a blacksmith that heated the steel to red hot then bent it into the required shape before it cooled. Nothing was welded together in those days. Instead, holes were made in the pieces to be connected and rivets were hammered to fasten parts together.

This photograph shows the machine with the long handle that punched a hole in the steel when a worker pulled on it hard enough.

(photo: Left is A. R. Miskin, manager (age 74). Right is Dean Humphries (workman). Machine behind them is a Buffalo Universal Iron Worker. The machine is still in service as of 2003 and used daily.)

(photo for publicity: Level your farm with a Miskin Model M Hydraulic Scraper. You’ll save money, work, time. It scrapes and digs, carries, spread, and dumps to move your dirt easily, quickly, where you want it, when you want it down. The Speed of a Miskin Scraper makes the difference! Fast travel while hauling, spreading and returning makes it possible to move more dirt with a farm tractor on rubber tires than can be moved with a larger scraper pulled by a crawler tractor.

Tests Prove It. An M-60 Miskin Scraper pulled by an IH 400 tractor moved 82 cubic yards per hour on a haul of 600 feet, for a gross earning to the owner of over $100.00 per day.)

As the years passed, tractors were improved and were made with pumps that moved hydraulic oil to implements they pulled so the hydraulic cylinders on the implement could do the work that the driver used to have to do. Miskin scrapers were designed to utilize these hydraulic cylinders. They were shipped to many places in this country and overseas.

(photo: Crew at Miskin’s after loading truckload for Myers Company in El Paso, Texas. Left to Right: Truck driver from El Paso, Arthur Miskin, Eugene Lords, Lawrence Hammer, Unknown, Spencer Jenkins, Dean Humphries, Gilbert Miskin.)

Today, Miskin Scraper Works has its manufacturing facilities in Ucon and in Idaho Falls. Its capabilities include shearing of heavy plate, presses, automatic welders and numeric controlled mills and lathes. They manufacture the world’s widest scraper, the world’s biggest pull-type scraper and are the world’s oldest manufacturer of scrapers for farms.

In addition to equipment for agricultural purposes the company is now producing earth-moving machines for the construction industry. These scrapers are used in development of golf courses, building site, roads, mining reclamation, or wherever dirt needs to be moved. Arhur R. Miskin’s early slogan, “The scrapers that move the earth” is still in effect.

They employ 58 people, and ship their equipment to many parts of the world. Miskin Scrapers were recently featured on TVs Discovery Channel in their program called “Monster Machines.” This spring they were given an Export Award from the U. S. Department of Commerce—an export achievement certificate for “Recent accomplishments in the global marketplace.”

The company continues to be owned by the Miskin family and is now managed by Mark R. Miskin, the grandson of its founder.

Presented to Bonneville County Heritage Commission, September 14, 2004, by Richard B. Miskin, manager from 1955 to 1995

Presentation made suitable for 4^th graders.