2/6/2011:
In 1952 oil rigs were actively drilling in the Williston Basin. One rig worker, E. R. “Goober” Muckelrath, noted that the steam boilers were failing to sufficiently warm the rigs, even coating the area with ice as the steam froze. At his home in Tioga, he set about designing a scale model of a new heater that could deliver 15,000 cubic feet of air per minute at 200 degrees. Nine years later … on this date in 1961 … Goober Mucklerath returned to the rig and smiled at the sight of the men inside working comfortably despite below-zero temperatures. His new company, Air Heaters Incorporated, is known today as Tioga Incorporated. It still thrives, all because of one cold rigger in North Dakota’s oil patch fifty years ago.
Dakota Datebook written by Jim Davis
Source:
Tioga Tribune- March 18, 1965