Portable Sanitation Association International

ASSOCIATIONINSIGHT Portable Sanitation Association International News BIWEEKLY EDITION MARCH 31, 2021 Page 4 Industry Pioneer: Ed Crafton…continued from page 3 Continued on page 5 After growing up in the Midwest and then living in Florida for 20-some years, the waterfalls, hills and valleys, and small town charm was literally life altering for the Craftons. They decided to relocate PolyPortables right there to Dahlonega. "The Four Pack" At the new plant location, Ed and his team continued to develop new and innovative products including "The Four Pack." This creative idea revolutionized the shipment of portable restroom units. Four units were designed whereby each of the four skids formed the top, bottom, and sides of a shipping container. With the tank, urinal, and other hardware inside the cube and the walls secured on top, units could be shipped more easily, cheaply, and for greater distances than ever before. Continued Growth As the company grew, Ed continued to explore new ideas while managing the growth and the prosperity of PolyPortables. Mitzi was involved with bookkeeping and other support functions, and she was exceptionally active in the community as well. Soon, Ed's fledgling company was nationwide in scope and had been established as a mainstay in the portable restroom industry. International Growth Former PolyPortables employee and longtime successful operator Jeremy Hawkins of Atlanta conveys an interesting account of the international growth of Ed's company. "In 1990, I answered an ad from the international department of PolyPortables," Jeremy begins. "I met one-on-one with Ed Crafton and I was so impressed. He was extremely personable and very down-to-earth." In the age before the mass use and availability of email, PolyPortables had been deluged with faxes from Europe for pricing and availability of portables. The inquiries were primarily from Germany. Jeremy explains, "The Berlin Wall had fallen in 1989 and a unified Germany meant that East Germany needed to be rebuilt. The former West German portable restroom operators expanded into the former East Germany and the demand for portable restrooms was huge." Jeremy got the job, and with Ed's support, the international growth of PolyPortables began. As Jeremy jokingly pointed out, "Prior to 1990, the company had two international customers—one in Canada and one in England." Fact: Dahlonega was the site of the nation's second gold rush in 1828 or 1829, after a smaller rush had occurred in North Carolina and well ahead of the more famous California rush in 1849. Gold from Dahlonega forms the "Gold Dome" of the Georgia state capitol in Atlanta. The Branch Mint at Dahlonega, which opened in 1838, coined more than $100,000 worth of gold its first year, and by 1861 (when it closed) had produced nearly 1.5 million gold coins with a face value of more than $6 million. Image courtesy of Dahlonega Mountain Signal Jeremy Hawkins

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