In 1956, Elmer Schaub—the Elmer part of Team Elmer’s—and his wife, Edna, opened for business digging conservation ponds with a dragline crane. Soon after Elmer dug his first pond, he noticed that he needed to level off the "spoil" created by the pond digging, so he purchased a D-4 Cat bulldozer. His wife named the company "ELMER'S CRANE AND DOZER,” a name that still holds true today. Elmer Schaub ran the business until 1977 when he decided to retire and offered Russell “Butch” Broad the chance to buy the business.
Having started to work for Peninsula Asphalt on the same day Butch graduated from Traverse City Senior High, he had gained plenty of prior construction experience, gradually advancing through the grade department until he was a grade foreman. Eventually, Butch ended up as the foreman on a project in the eastbound lanes of South Airport Road next to Logan’s Landing in Traverse City.
Elmer Schaub drove by the project, skidded to a stop and came over to where Butch was sitting waiting for traffic to clear before he could leave to go home. Elmer said, “Why don’t you buy my excavation company?” Thinking that he was joking, Butch said, “Get in. We’ll go by Pacesetter Bank.” Elmer convinced Butch to look at the business, which then included seven employees, four tandems, one loader, three dozers, two cranes, one lowboy and an annual earning of $275,000. Butch went home and told his family, “I think we should look at this.”
That was in 1977, and since then, the company has continued to expand across northern Michigan while maintaining its dedication to a high-quality product and customer satisfaction. Some of our highlights include:
Today, the name Team Elmer’s encompasses Elmer’s Crane & Dozer, Inc., Elmer’s Esphalt, and Elmer’s Concrete, among others. With all of our improvements, we have only begun to scratch the surface of what is to come with the future of Elmer’s. We can only reach that future by continuing our commitment to integrity, quality, and service.
