The Zimmerers - Irrigation Innovators

The company Paul Zimmerer started here in 1955 as the Lindsay Manufacturing Company still makes Zimmatic center pivots. Now the Lindsay Corporation, it is headquartered in Omaha and has traded on the New York Stock Exchange since October 21, 1997, under the symbol LNN, but it kept its plant in the village. In 2005 it accounted for about 460 of the 577 jobs in Lindsay, some 80 percent. The village itself was platted in 1886 and named for Lindsay, Ontario, home of many of its first settlers.

What the plaque says

The Zimmerers Irrigation Innovators 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. Platte County Historical Society Village of Lindsay Nebraska State Historical Society, 2016 Lindsay Corporation

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Genoa U.S. Indian School Museum — 17 mi
  The surviving trades building of a federal boarding school that ran from 1884 to 1934 on the Pawnee Nation's last Nebraska land, where at least 86 children died and the cemetery is still lost.

More markers nearby

• Granville Cemetery — 7.8 mi
• West Hill Community — 10 mi
• St. Edward — 13 mi
• Barnes Reserve Cemetery — 15 mi