For a few years, the Antioch vicinity was one of the most important potash-producing regions in the nation. Antioch grew from a small village to a town of about 2,000. When the First World War broke out, the United States was cut off from European sources of Potash, which was a component of fertilizer used in the cotton belt. Two University of Nebraska graduates in chemistry developed a method for separating potash from the alkaline lakes of the Nebraska Sand Hills. Large-scale production began in 1916.
The potash-producing brine was pumped from the lakes to reduction plants near the railroads. By the spring of 1918, five plants were in operation in this vicinity. Nebraska potash was used in the manufacture of fertilizer, epsom salts, soda, and other products.
With the end of the war, importation of foreign potash resumed. Because French and German potash could be produced more cheaply than the Nebraska product, the Nebraska potash boom collapsed. The last Antioch plant closed in 1921. Today, the ruins of reduction plants and pumping stations bear mute testimony to the activity which once made Antioch a major potash production center.
]]>During the 1950s and 1960s Paul Zimmerer, working in his auto and farm equipment repair shop in Lindsay, Nebraska, invented a series of irrigation products that changed the landscape of Nebraska agriculture. One was the tractor-towed “Towline” that allowed farmers to move a connected-pipeline irrigation system from field to field. It featured Zimmerer’s patented flexible leak-proof coupler known as the “Quick-Tach.”
In 1968 Zimmerer, with sons Art and Bernie, developed one of the first electric center-pivot irrigators, the “Zimmatic.” Its unique “Uni-Knuckle” joint enabled the system to irrigate rough terrain. The original water-driven pivots were capable of irrigating only relatively flat fields. The Zimmatic also used an external collector ring to transfer electrical power throughout the system. These developments and the establishment of a manufacturing plant on Paul’s farm just east of town made Lindsay an industry leader and major supplier of irrigation equipment throughout the U.S. and worldwide.
The Zimmerers’ entrepreneurship and innovation advanced irrigation technology tremendously, greatly benefiting the town of Lindsay, the surrounding rural community, the state of Nebraska, and the world.
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