Remembering Walt Behlen’s Sense Of Showmanship

By: Kylie Kinley

Today, a business promotion might involve a video or a hashtag. In the 1940s and ’50s, Behlen Manufacturing suspended tractors from its plant’s ceiling and tested its buildings with an atomic bomb.

Behlen Manufacturing, whose headquarters is in Columbus, celebrated its 80th anniversary in June. The company’s huge contributions to the agriculture industry, the Columbus community and science in general are noteworthy, but founder Walt Behlen’s sense of showmanship coupled with his mechanical genius create one of Nebraska’s better stories.

Behlen grew up the second oldest of nine children on a farm 10 miles north of Columbus. He occupied his time raising skunks, experimenting with explosives, salvaging and rebuilding motorcycles, and creating a contraption he and his brothers called “The Crow Canon.”

Behlen also saw how mechanical improvements could save farmers time and money. He spent all his spare time working on numerous inventions in his family’s garage. After a failed venture into manufacturing corn-husking hooks (mechanization made them obsolete), Behlen and his father and brothers, who joined him in business, were successful making steel boot toe covers and metal clamps for fastening egg crates.

According to the biography “Walt Behlen’s Universe” by William McDaniel, Behlen’s devotion to his work spilled over into his love life. When he started dating his future wife, Ruby Cumming, he sent one of his sisters to make the 40-mile trip to Fremont to pick up Cumming so he could spend another hour in his shop. McDaniel writes that Behlen later said, “Ruby soon broke me of that.” He and Cumming married on April 13, 1940.