Converse County scores one of only five Caterpillar 100th anniversary blades
Converse County Commissioners Rick Grant and Trent Kaufman visit with Road and Bridge foreman John Shepherd and Dan Holman as they show off the features of the brand new blade given to the county in the garage of the Converse County Road & Bridge Department. The blade is a limited edition machine celebrating Caterpillar’s 100th anniversary. Photo by Nate Pappas, Douglas Budget.
DOUGLAS — The roads of Converse County have a new grader. And it is one of only five in the world.
On the morning of Feb. 19, Converse County Road and Bridge Department unveiled the brand new blade that will be used for road maintenance. The grader, which is one of five
in the world (specifically number three), was provided to the county by Caterpillar as part of its 100-year anniversary celebration.
The county had already purchased a new grader, but Wyoming Machinery Company was able to upgrade it to the 100th edition model at no additional charge.
“It’s just a neat opportunity. There’s only five of these machines worldwide, so to have one of them be able to land in Wyoming with a good partner that we’ve had for many years is just kind of special,” Wyoming Machinery Company’s Dan Holman said.
In addition to the typical features that come with a blade, this one also comes with a prototype snow wing that will add to the plowing potential of the base 210 horsepower AWD 150 beast.
The new blade will be used close to towns in order to show it off, but it also will be seen plowing routes to the rural schools as well as a number of other places during winter. Other times of the year it will be used to blade the hundreds of miles of county roads.
While the big CAT machine arrived Feb. 18 – and immediately was put under wraps until the unveiling ceremony Thursday – Converse County residents will have to wait just a bit longer to see it in action, as the department still needs to put some finishing touches on it.
“We got to finish getting our communications radio, put in it, our receiver hitch, so we can tow the pickups with it. And we have to (add) chain racks for tire chains, said Road and Bridge Superintendent Jason Wilkinson. “We got to outfit it specifically for our use.”
Wilkinson said grader should be on the road soon.
This story was published on Feb. 25, 2026.