When the 1893 World’s Fair landed in Chicago, a Minnesota firm took home a gold medal for its innovative hoisting products, all of which were emblematic of an industrial age of steel and locomotion. More than a century later, the same company oversaw construction of the massive crane that pulled a U.S. Airways jet plane from the Hudson River in New York following a dramatic emergency landing in 2009. Related Articles Business People: Sunday, Sept. 20

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Founded in St. Paul’s West Side neighborhood in 1884, American Hoist and Derrick became synonymous with hoists, steam shovels, railroad equipment and, as the 20th century chugged along, waste balers, magnetic cranes and marine platform cranes for offshore oil wells. As its products evolved, so did its name and corporate acquisitions, until it too was acquired by the oil rig company National Oilwell Varco.

The firm, at one time one of the city’s largest employers, remains one of the longest continuously operating private businesses in Minnesota, but not for long. The company, which has adopted various identities since its founding as the Franklin Manufacturing Co. in 1884, “is finally cashing in its chips, leaving town, and will disappear into a multinational conglomerate,” said Pat Hill, an amateur St. Paul historian.

Hill said that American Hoist and Derrick — currently known as AmClyde, a successor to AmHoist — played no small part in the creation of Mount Rushmore, Grant’s Tomb in New York City and the Panama Canal, which is still considered one of the world’s foremost wonders of modern engineering. In fact, you could even say the firm helped beat Hitler.

“Its cranes were used in every shipyard in America between the two World Wars and contributed significantly to the successful war efforts,” said Hill, recalling how the company occupied a sprawling manufacturing complex along the south banks of the Mississippi River between downtown St. Paul’s Wabasha and Lafayette bridges.

ONE OF ST. PAUL’S BIGGEST EMPLOYERS

In the 1970s, that plant was one of the city’s largest employers. A full-blown manufacturing facility specialized in crawler-cranes, mobile cranes, locomotive cranes, winches and hoists of various sizes. The company oversaw design and construction through its St. Paul-based foundries, which produced custom-made cranes for buyers all over the world.

Then came the national oil crisis of the 1980s. American Hoist and Derrick spun off in various directions, with its crane manufacturing and design division landing in Wilmington, N.C., under the name American Crane Co. It continues to operate there under the name Terex.

A single division stayed in Minnesota. AmClyde was formed with the merging of the AmHoist Marine and Energy Group with Clyde Iron of Duluth in 1987. AmClyde produces custom-made “one-off” machines for the oil, gas and offshore construction industries, as well as stevedoring port-side cranes for shipyard installations.

The company holds the Guinness World Record for the largest lift ever made, with the use of twin 6,600-ton floating marine cranes, and it gained industry fame in 1986 when it completed the crane that sits atop the Saipem 7000, the world’s second-largest crane vessel.

The Saipem 7000 crane remains a favorite of project manager Carol Alojado, who helped oversee everything from its design to assembly. Alojado, who joined the company as an office temp in the late 1980s, retires this month after roughly 30 years with the firm.

“The work was extremely fulfilling and interesting, and satisfying, and challenging, and all the things that you would want a job to be,” she said. “We were like a family up here. I remember when I hit my 15-year mark up here, I was probably in the lower 20 percent in terms of years of service. It sounds so cliche to say we were like a family, but we truly were.”

AN ERA ENDS

The company’s longevity among private Minnesota companies is perhaps second only to the state’s capital city newspaper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press. By the end of July, however, its chapter in state history comes to a close.

Founded 132 years ago by engineers Oliver Crosby and Frank Johnson, the company that grew into a national powerhouse “employed tens of thousands over its years here” but will soon have no Minnesota employees at all, Hill said. Seven employees based at 240 East Plato Boulevard will relocate to Houston, according to company employees. A handful are retiring.

AmClyde was acquired by National Oilwell Varco in 2004. Hill said AmClyde did an admirable job of resisting NOV’s efforts to relocate the St. Paul firm’s operations to Texas until a recent downturn in oil prices weakened business. The Plato Boulevard headquarters is nearly empty.

The company “revolutionized American railroad, lumber and sugar cane industries,” Hill said. Among fans of St. Paul history, it will be missed.

Correction: A previous version of this story inaccurately described AmClyde as a division of AmHoist and listed the wrong date for its acquisition by National Oilwell Varco in 2004.