4 THE EDGE | ANNIVERSARY ISSUE | 2013

T he city of Portland, Oregon, was little more than a rest stop between the U.S. Army’s outpost at Fort Vancouver to the north and

Oregon City, the area’s trading hub, to the south. In 1883 the country’s first transcontinental railroad reached Portland, connecting the region to the East Coast. That same year, 21-year-old C.F. Swigert arrived in town.

As general manager for the San Francisco-based Pacific Bridge Company, young C.F. came north to oversee construction of the Morrison Bridge, the first of an eventual 10 bridges to span the Willamette River and link Portland’s east and west sides. C.F.’s mission was to help further settle-ment of the city by building additional bridges. He proved adept at winning contracts for more crossings over the Willamette, including the Burnside, Ross Island, Oregon City and St. Johns bridges. C.F. also guided construction of the Columbia River Bridge,

connecting Oregon and Washington, and the Lake Union Bridge in Seattle.

But C.F. didn’t stop there. He parlayed his entrepre-neurial skills to start several businesses focused on Portland’s infrastructure, including the Willamette Bridge Railway Company. His first trolley car line connected downtown Portland to the city’s northeast neighborhoods. It was the streetcar business that ultimately seeded the roots for C.F. to venture into the steel industry. Needing wheels, gears and other parts for his streetcars, he financed the formation of a small foundry called the Portland Bronze and Crucible Steel Company to manufacture those parts. In 1905, C.F. sold his interest in both businesses and purportedly spent a large part of the following year traveling the world.

Returning to Portland, C.F. got back into the steel business in 1913 with the founding of Electric Steel

5THE EDGE | ANNIVERSARY ISSUE | 2013

Page 4: C.F. Swigert’s trolley business ultimately led him to the steel busi-ness and the founding of ESCO Corporation. This page: The initial footprint of ESCO before expanding south toward Vaughn Street. Young Charles “C.F.” Swigert.

Foundry, located in Northwest Portland at the inter-section of 24th Avenue and Vaughn Street. By 1926, the Electric Steel Foundry had advanced from a job shop to a company manufacturing proprietary products.

C. F. wanted a trademark to identify his unique products. His middle son, Ernie, happened to be traveling in Washington State when he came upon the Everett Steel Casting Company. Since people had started referring to his father’s business as ES Company, or ESCO, Ernie convinced the owner of the Everett Steel Casting Company to sell him the ESCO name for $500. From that point on, the ESCO scroll became a fixture on the company’s products, but it wasn’t until 1960 that ESCO Corporation was formally adopted as the corporate name.

Since its founding, ESCO has experienced many impressive achievements, including:

• During World War II, ESCO shifted its produc-tion to support the war effort. Valves, anchors and anchor chain were produced for naval ships, and cast parts were made for tanks and aircraft.

• The patented two-piece Conical tooth system for earth moving buckets won many design awards. The ground engaging tool became the industry standard. Subsequent proprietary product develop-ments have kept ESCO at the forefront of earth-moving wear parts innovation.

• The 1970s were a period of strong growth and profitability for ESCO, with the opening of new, highly automated foundries around the world. In 1973, the company again demonstrated tech-nological leadership by becoming the first steel manufacturer in the world to use the Argon Oxygen Decarburization, or AOD, process to produce alloys of unprecedented purity and toughness.

Today, 100 years since our founding, ESCO Corporation employs nearly 5,000 people in 28 coun-tries on six continents, including an expansive network of 27 manufacturing facilities and more than 50 sales and distribution offices.