Skip to content
i2E
  • Programs
    • E3
    • ACT Tulsa
    • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
    • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio
  • Services
    • Access to Funding
    • Venture Advisory Services
  • About
    • Our Values
    • Meet Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Programs
    • E3
    • ACT Tulsa
    • Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup
    • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio
  • Services
    • Access to Funding
    • Venture Advisory Services
  • About
    • Our Values
    • Meet Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • Corporate Partners
  • Contact
  • Media
Search

Charles Machine Works a case study in entrepreneurship

Get in Touch

By Scott Meacham

Charles Machine Works is a case study in entrepreneurship and innovation.

To succeed in entrepreneurship, solve a problem that lots of businesses have. You can be even more successful, if the business you are solving that big problem for is in an industry that is about to take off.

That’s the Oklahoma story of the Malzahn family, Charles Machine Works (CMW) and the world-famous Ditch Witch brand.

Back in the early 1900s, Carl Frederick Malzahn, a German immigrant, and his sons Charles and Gus traded Minnesota winters for Oklahoma winds. Together they built a successful blacksmith business in Perry, OK. After a few years, the business, then named Charlie’s Machine Shop, caught the crest of one of Oklahoma’s oil booms and pivoted to repairing parts for operators in nearby oil fields.

Opportunity Recognized

At the end of World War II, the demand for housing was huge. New neighborhoods required expanded utilities. Building out electric, gas, and plumbing lines from the major trunks to rows of houses under construction meant slow, back-breaking pick and shovel work. Commercial machines were too large to adapt to the smaller lines. Charlie and his son Ed, a graduate of Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State), recognized a new opportunity.

The pair did what all great mechanical engineers do. They spent weeks and months in their machine shop constructing a prototype machine to dig those smaller, shorter trenches efficiently and affordably. Their invention had buckets with teeth-like jags on a moving chain. It emptied gouged-out dirt into neat piles. For Charlies Machine Shop, a second business pivot was in the works.

Over the next 10 years, business incorporated as The Charles Machine Works, Inc. (CMW). They created national distribution and branding — the name Ditch Witch is inspired. Ditch Witch, the first mechanized, compact service-line trencher for laying water lines from the street to the house, was patented. The company opened international sales, and broke ground on a manufacturing facility on 160 acres outside of Perry that came to employ thousands.

From blacksmithing, to replacement parts, to the invention of the Ditch Witch, the Malzahn family and their team started up a whole new industry for safely and efficiently installing any underground utilities, including telecommunications, CATV cable, and fiber optics. The first Ditch Witch sold for $750 in the fifties.

In 2019, Toro acquired The Charles Machine Works for $700 million.

Case Study for Entrepreneurs

Not only is this a great Oklahoma story, Charles Machine Works is a case study in entrepreneurship and innovation, starting back in 1907 with a family of hard-working entrepreneurs who came to Oklahoma to build a life and a company.

Not surprisingly, the oil and gas industry is part of Charles Machine Works history, as it is for so many of Oklahoma’s successful businesses. A unique aspect of CMW’s history is that their breakout success was built on trenching equipment with the Ditch Witch, and yet the company went on to become a technology leader in the trenchless industry as well.

Engineers. Vision. Pivots. Self-sufficiency. Large markets with big problems. Family. Small towns. Oklahoma. Connect the dots.

That’s why Charles Machine Works is a case study in entrepreneurship and innovation.

Scott Meacham is president and CEO of i2E Inc., a nonprofit corporation that mentors many of the state’s technology-based startup companies. i2E receives state support from the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology and is an integral part of Oklahoma’s Innovation Model. Contact Meacham at [email protected]

  • Sarah Graves
    Sarah Graves

More News

Loading...
Black doctor smiling with stethoscope
Blog, i2E
02.09.23

Titan Intake Automates Patient Referrals to Accelerate Care

Read more
man and woman reviewing paperwork at a table
Blog, i2E, News
01.10.23

Stories of Oklahoma Innovation: Building a Startup

Read more
woman in lab conducting a study
Blog, i2E
12.13.22

Bayesic Technologies Improves Effectiveness and Efficiency of Data Analysis in Healthcare

Read more
Bison grazing fields
Blog
11.30.22

Bison Underground Merges Nature, Science, and Technology to Tackle Climate Change

Read more
African American family sitting on couch reading and chatting
Blog, E3, i2E
11.22.22

Fokes Connects Families, Caregivers and Care Agencies for Smoother Communications and Care 

Read more
i2e blog post graphic
Blog, News
11.03.22

Introducing: Stories of Oklahoma Innovation

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.28.22

Oklahoma Grown! i2E Invests in BIO startups

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Moleculera Labs BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

Oklahoma State University BIO

Read more
Default Featured Image
OKBio
06.13.22

ECHO Investment Capital BIO

Read more
i2E

Oklahoma City Office

840 Research Parkway, Suite 250
OKC, OK 73104
+1 (405) 235.2305

Tulsa Office

100 S. Cincinnati Ave – Suite 514
Tulsa, OK 74103
+1 (918) 582.5592

  • Client Portfolio
  • About Us
  • Media
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Resources

© 2022 i2E Privacy Policy

Follow us:

Facebook Twitter Linkedin

Programs

  • E3
  • ACT Tulsa
  • Love's Entrepreneur's Cup
  • OKBio
  • Client Portfolio

Services

  • Access to Funding
  • Venture Advisory Services
  • Contact
  • About
  • Our Values
  • Our Team
  • Board of Directors
  • Corporate Partners
  • Media
i2E