history

Gibson Corporation was founded in 1946 by Wilber Gibson. Wilber’s father, Harry Gibson had formed the original company at Seattle, Washington, and Gibson Corp was a branch of that. The Seattle branch had been experimenting with tractors, but mostly produced specially built rail cars. The move to Longmont Colorado was, in part, to escape the pressure to unionize, since Longmont was a small, agricultural community with very little industry at the time. Under government contract, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, they produced forklifts for the Navy. There are conflicting stories about the company’s end, though it was most likely due to a combination of factors. Competition, as well as the pressure to meet quotas of forklifts at the expense of producing tractors, were probably the main factors in the company as it was originally known. The company was sold to Helene Curtis Industries, Chicago, Illinois in 1952.