Houston Public Works restores piece of road history

PERRY -- The Houston County Public Works Department is giving a nod to its past with the restoration of an antique road grader.

County officials Thursday unveiled the Caterpillar Model 35 pull-behind grader built in the early 1930s. It will sit in front of the Public Works building on Kings Chapel Road in Perry.

It's not known whether the grader was ever used by the county. Houston County Commission Chairman Tommy Stalnaker said it was bought years ago by Harry Lucas, who operates a grading and paving business in Warner Robins.

Lucas bought it as a collector's item, but it remained in storage until he donated it to the county a few months ago.

Stalnaker said he remembers seeing similar machines in operation when he was a child. Before that, he said, counties would scrape roads by pulling a log behind mules. The machines, called motor graders today, are used to scrape the bumps out of a dirt road, as well as in construction.

"You look at that now and you say, 'That's really obsolete compared with what you've got today with computers operating motor graders,'" Stalnaker said. "But I tell you what, when this came along I would imagine this was the cream of the crop."

The county paid about $2,000 to Moncrief Sandblasting in Macon to restore it. Operated by brothers Gary and Andy Moncrief, who were at the unveiling, the company specializes in restoring antique farm equipment.

The Moncriefs said they mostly restore tractors, and this is the first antique grader they have tackled.

They painted it in the original Caterpillar yellow and are working to recreate the original decals.

Ron Lang of Yancey Brothers in Macon, which sells Caterpillar equipment, said the grader is believed to have cost about $7,000 new.

A tractor usually would have pulled it, but it also could have been pulled by a team of horses or mules, he said. As archaic as it sounds, Lang said it was an important piece of equipment in its day and didn't just scrape roads.

"During that same time the Hoover Dam, the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge were being constructed," he said. "This is the type tool men were using to basically build the wonders of the world."

To contact writer Wayne Crenshaw, call 256-9725.

This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 4:38 PM.