The Best Coast’s homegrown Great War tanks
The C. L. Best Tractor Company of San Leandro, California built two mock-up armored vehicles based on their CLB 75 Tracklayer tractor in 1916 for trials with with the California National Guard. These vehicles were steampunk before steampunk was cool.
One had a semi-cylindrical hull with a turret (of which most pictures exist) and the other was similar but the hull had flat surfaces.
Equipped with 6-pounder Naval guns which were apparently fitted but never fired, they had up to a half-inch of steel armor.
These two machines appeared at a Fourth of July celebration in San Francisco in 1917, and in maneuvers with the 5th Infantry Regiment of the California National Guard, as well as in recruiting posters and brochures for the next several years. As noted by some accounts, they were termed “Bison” by the guardsmen.
Best merged with the Holt Tractor company after the war to become Caterpillar.
laststandonzombieisland 