Bulldozer Urns

This collection is for the operator who moved the ground, the one who cleared paths and built things that remain long after the work is done. These cast aluminum urns feature a bulldozer design and come in painted finishes or hand-applied enamel with silver bands.

We offer the option to have a name and dates cut directly into the surface with a two-tone engraving. It is a tribute to the person who was as steady and immovable as the machines they operated.

True blade work is finer than it looks from the road. It takes years of practice before an operator can take two inches off a grade and leave it flat enough to build on, working both hands and both feet to find that perfect level. You likely remember them as that steady, capable presence, the one who could make a difficult job look effortless while shaping the world around them. They were the ones who moved the ground to make room for something new.

The work they did leaves the landscape changed for everyone who passes by. A new road, a house pad, or a pond where a field once stood remains as a mark of their time on this earth. There is a particular pride in owning the machine, paying it off over the years, and maintaining it on weekends so that a name might be seen on the side of something so heavy. They may have preferred the long, solitary hours spent in the cab with only the radio for company, finding a quiet peace in the rhythm of the job.

This collection uses the bulldozer as a central design, representing the tool that defined their days. Each piece is cast aluminum, available in various painted colors or in a hand-applied enamel finish accented by hand-detailed silver bands. Every urn is designed with a threaded screw-top lid and a felt base to ensure they are kept with care. It is a way to honor the machine that was an extension of who they were.

To ensure every family can find a way to keep those memories close, the collection includes full-size, sharing, and keepsake urns. This allows for a single piece to be kept or for several pieces to be shared among the family.

For a more personal touch, we can engrave a name and dates directly into the surface. This two-tone engraving is cut permanently into the metal, much like the structures they built that outlasted them.

The machine is younger than the word. In the 1870s, bulldozing meant intimidation by force, and by 1886, a bulldozer was a heavy-caliber pistol. It was not until the 1930s that the word settled onto the tractor with a blade on the front.

The machine itself was designed by two men in Kansas, James Cummings and J. Earl McLeod. They filed a patent for a tractor attachment on December 18, 1923, which was granted in January 1925. A replica of what they built stands in Morrowville, and the early models were Holt farm tractors with a plate bolted on. For a family, the design on the urn is the machine the person ran, and everything of theirs still standing.

Source: Wikipedia, Bulldozer

If you remember them for their unshakeable nature and that steady, capable presence, then this bulldozer design will recall who they were. Families choose this because the machine was a signature of their work, and their hands shaped the very landscape around you.

The decision of how to honor them belongs to you and your own memories. When you see this design, you see them in the cab, radio on, working a grade.

Our guide to selecting the right size urn