Sawdust City Spot #5 Traditional Cache
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Another in the series taking you on a tour of Eau Claire and
spotlighting what made this city what it is today.
This cache is across the street from Presto and Xcel energy. Presto
was here first and one of the landmarks of Eau Claire as it was
breaking away from the lumber industry. The company was founded in
1905 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It manufactured industrial-size
pressure canners, known as "canner retorts," for commercial
canneries. At that time National Presto, then called Northwestern
Steel and Iron Works, was a major producer of fifty gallon capacity
pressure canners. Subsequently, the company also began production
of thirty-gallon canners for hotel use and soon thereafter
developed ten-gallon models suitable for home canning. In 1915 the
company installed an aluminum foundry for the specific purpose of
manufacturing large-size pressure canners for home use. When, in
1917, the United States Department of Agriculture determined that
pressure canning was the only safe method of canning low-acid foods
without risking food poisoning, all commercial canneries were
forced to equip themselves with facilities for the pressure canning
of their products. During this period the company became one of the
largest manufacturers of cast aluminum cooking utensils in the
world. World War II, however, brought a temporary end to the
manufacture of pressure cookers as well as other cast aluminum
cooking utensils. Quick to cooperate in the war effort, the company
converted almost all of its production facilities into war work,
manufacturing artillery fuses, aerial bombs, and rocket fuses. It
became the first to manufacture rocket fuses on a mass production
scale and was also one of the first companies in the state of
Wisconsin to receive the Army-Navy "E" Award, receiving five such
awards during its wartime operation. Throughout the period of World
War II, the company continued to manufacture canners for the
extremely important victory garden and canning programs. Materials
for these canners were provided by the War Production Board, and
the canners were made of steel since aluminum was not available. If
you look around the building complex, you can still see guard
stations from when it was working under military contract. With
victory in sight in 1945, the company resumed a portion of its
civilian production. The company's first commercial expansion
outside the Eau Claire area also occurred in 1953 with the opening
of a new plant in Jackson, Mississippi.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gerrf bs guerr, yrg gurz or. Gerrf bs sbhe frnepu ab zber.
Treasures
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