Every once in a while a story from Penticton about Oliver.

You can look for it – this from ODN in 2013 – six years ago……

 

Post script – **Ernie and Kay retired to Vaseux Lake – the building re finished into a paint store with flooring for sale.

On the back of this card photo these words: “1952, Oliver –  Ted Trump on first Giraffe ladder is 14 ft. size. Some testing was done in Nov. 1951”

2nd Photo is a scan of all the models of Trump before it closed

Below Ernie Rotheisler speaking to the Oliver-Osoyoos Historical Society’s AGM at the United Church. The basement had a good turn out for Ernie’s outline of the history of Trump Giraffes and Rotheisler Kangaroos.

“My wife told me, without my overalls, and a tooth pick in my mouth – no one would recognize me.”

Ernie spoke at length about the history of the Rotheislers coming to Oliver in 1947, buying orchard land and the inventive nature of his father John who liked to make orchard work less onerous. He went over a lot of time periods calling Ted Trump a great salesman with the drive to bring industry to the Village of Oliver with over a hundred men working in the plant at one time. The Trump’s Oliver operations lasted about twenty years before moving to Ontario to be closer to eastern markets.
Rotheisler Equipment is still in operation today ….almost 60 years later.**

Below from a sales brochure – Rotheisler Equipment Ltd. – The Kangaroo – first produced in 1955 as a self propelled piece of farm equipment. The Trump Giraffe needed to be towed by a tractor in the orchard.