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Minneapolis-Moline History & Timeline

Minneapolis-Moline was one of American farming’s most distinctive tractor makers — the Prairie-Gold machines built in Hopkins and Minneapolis, Minnesota and Moline, Illinois. This page traces the company from its three predecessor firms through the 1929 merger to the end of the marque, with a year-by-year timeline of the tractors. Company milestones are cited to the source below; every model links to its own page, where production years are sourced individually.

The three companies behind Minneapolis-Moline

Minneapolis-Moline was formed in 1929 by the merger of three companies: Minneapolis Steel & Machinery, maker of the Twin City tractors; the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company, which built “Minneapolis” tractors; and the Moline Implement Company (formerly Moline Plow), maker of the Moline–Universal. See our predecessors overview for how the three lines came together.

Under the Minneapolis-Moline name the company built the R, Z, U and G series, pioneered the closed-cab UDLX “Comfortractor” in 1938 (in Prairie-Gold paint), and went on to the Star and Jet Star tractors, the M series and the Big-G six-cylinder line. In 1960 it reorganized as Motec Industries, was acquired by the White Motor Company in 1963, and the Minneapolis-Moline brand name was dropped in 1974. (See also the specialty machines and model-suffix guide.)

Timeline

The predecessor era (through 1928)

The Minneapolis-Moline era (1929–1974)

Company-history milestones are drawn from the cited source; tractor production years come from each model’s own individually-sourced page. Approximate or still-being-verified dates are noted on the model page.