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Spuds in Space? (tap to read)

4/21/2023

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Okay, what would YOU call your potato equipment manufacturing business? If you were one of the Hobbs brothers who started their business in a potato cellar northwest of Blackfoot, you’d call it Spudnik. It was 1958. Get it? Russian satellite?

Carl and Leo Hobbs designed and developed the Spudnik Scooper. The company went on to develop harvesters, conveyors, planters, self-unloading truck beds and much other potato-oriented equipment. In 2001 they entered into a joint partnership with the Grimme Group of companies, headquartered in Damme, Germany, which is the largest potato equipment manufacturer in the world.

Spudnik is still headquartered in Blackfoot, the “Potato Capital of the World,” if you didn’t know. The photo is of their downtown Blackfoot office in 1960.
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    Author, Speaker

    Rick Just has been writing about Idaho history since 1989 when he wrote and recorded scripts for the Idaho Centennial Commission’s daily radio program, Idaho Snapshots. His latest book on Idaho history is Images of America, Idaho State Parks. Rick also writes a regular column for the Idaho Press.

    Rick does public presentations on Idaho's state park history and the history of the Morrisite war for the Idaho Humanities Council's Speakers Bureau.
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