GRANT COUNTY
Enriches Experience
A Century of Iron in Marion
In 1923, a Marion man ran 11 foundries across three states. Atlas Foundry Company is the only one still owned by the founding family and still pouring iron in the county where the enterprise was directed. Drawing on local archives and a conversation with Jim and Bill Gartland, we trace how steady reinvestment, deliberate specialization, and a diversified customer base kept it here, and what that means for manufacturing retention in Grant County.
The Plate, the Cabinet, and the Cake
Three Grant County factory floors, three unrelated products, and one shared constraint. A Business Retention and Expansion visit to Huhtamaki, American Woodmark, and Cafe Valley finds all three limited not by orders or equipment, but by people, and each answering that constraint in its own way.
Seventy Years of Stamping in Marion
A community open house on July 31 marks 70 years of GM Marion Stamping, and offers a window into what sustains advanced manufacturing in Grant County.