The Forest City businessman who put a small Iowa town at the center of America's road-trip dreams.
In 1958 John K. Hanson, a Forest City furniture and appliance dealer, helped recruit a California travel-trailer maker to town to create local jobs, then took over the venture himself.
He named it Winnebago Industries after the county, pioneered assembly-line motorhome production to make RVs affordable, and turned Forest City, Iowa, into the RV capital of America.
Winnebago became so iconic that its name is often used as a generic term for a motorhome. The company anchored the economy of a small northern-Iowa town for generations and remains one of the best-known names in American recreation.
The Hanson family's civic role in Forest City (jobs, philanthropy, and pride) long outlasted John K. Hanson himself.
Winnebago Industries is based in Forest City, Iowa. A publicly traded RV maker (NYSE: WGO) still headquartered in Forest City
1958.
John K. Hanson: the driving force who founded and built Winnebago Industries
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