From a railroad town to an English colony to a Viking shipyard, Hawley has always dared to try the impossible. Today, Alderon Industries carries that spirit forward—quietly powering the systems that keep water flowing in communities across the country.
From Small Town Roots to Statewide Impact
When you drive through Hawley, Minnesota (population 2,233) you might not expect to find the United States’ leading manufacturer of water and wastewater control systems. Yet inside Alderon Industries, engineers and builders are creating the products that help make modern life possible: float switches, alarms, and custom control panels that keep communities safe, farms efficient and industries moving.
Founded in 2000, Alderon began with a simple mission: to provide reliable, easy-to-use solutions for pumping and control. What started as a handful of products has grown into a catalog serving municipalities, manufacturers and businesses across the United States and beyond. Their work is especially important in a state where water defines so much of life—from farming and lakes to stormwater and wastewater management.
But to understand Alderon, you have to understand Hawley. This town has a history and citizenry who refused to accept the word “impossible.”
New Yeovil: A Bold Leap Across an Ocean
In 1873, more than sixty colonists from Yeovil, Somerset, England set out to start a new life in Minnesota. Promised fertile soil, cheap land and lucrative opportunity, they founded “New Yeovil” close to where Hawley is today.
Reality was harsher than expected: the lots were smaller and costlier than advertised, the soil demanded back-breaking labor, and the settlers were more accustomed to shop floors than farm fields. To make matters worse, the Panic of 1873 swept across America, collapsing markets and halting railroad expansion, the reason New Yeovil existed in the first place.
Within a few years, most of the Yeovil settlers had left the area, some returning east, others back to England. New Yeovil faded, but its memory lives on in the spirit of Hawley’s people and in the bones of the community itself.
The Yeovil colonists may not have succeeded, but we can still feel their bravery and drive: the willingness to cross an ocean to try something bigger than themselves. Hawley would carry that torch into the future.
The Viking Ship That Defied the Prairie
Nowhere is that lesson clearer than in the story of the Hjemkomst. In the 1970s, Moorhead guidance counselor Bob Asp dreamed of building a full-scale Viking ship. Without a shipyard, he turned to an unused potato warehouse in Hawley. Volunteers joined him, and for years the “Hawley Shipyard” rang with the sound of saws and hammers.
The ship, a faithful replica of the ancient Gokstad vessel, was named Hjemkomst—Norwegian for “Homecoming.” Asp, who battled leukemia through the project, never saw the voyage completed. But in 1982, his family and crew sailed the Hjemkomst across the Atlantic, landing in Norway.
It was considered an impossible dream: a Viking ship built in a potato warehouse, landlocked, and inevitably crossing an ocean, proving again that Hawley was a place where “impossible” meant nothing.
Alderon Industries: Modern Builders of the Impossible
Fast forward to the 2000s, and Hawley is home to Alderon Industries, a company whose products may not be as romantic as a Viking ship but are essential to our quality of life. Instead of oak beams, Alderon works with wires and circuits. Instead of crossing oceans, Alderon’s mission is to ensure that communities, farms, and industries across Minnesota stay afloat.
Municipalities rely on Alderon’s panels to manage wastewater systems and lift stations. Farmers use their alarms and switches to keep irrigation and grain handling systems reliable. Industries depend on Alderon’s controls to safeguard operations and protect resources.
The technology is quiet, unseen and heroic. When Hawley’s grain elevator fire in 2024 strained the local water system, it was a reminder of just how vital control systems are. Alderon’s work ensures that when the unexpected happens, communities are ready.
Building Legacy in Every Panel
What connects New Yeovil, the Viking ship and Alderon Industries? At first glance, not much. But look closer, and you’ll see the same current: the refusal to accept that something can’t be done and the need to do that something with heart.
Where the Yeovil colonists took a leap of faith, where Bob Asp turned a potato warehouse into a shipyard, Alderon carries the same DNA—big vision balanced by precision, persistence and community.
Alderon’s float switches and panels might not look like legends, but they perform heroic work every day. They are Hawley’s modern answer to the age-old challenge of doing the impossible: keeping Minnesota’s communities safe, steady and strong.
Hawley has always been a community of spirit and drive. Some, like New Yeovil, didn’t last. Others, like the Hjemkomst, sailed into legend. And today, Alderon Industries proves that small-town ambition can ripple outward across an entire state and country.
Alderon doesn’t just build products—it builds legacy. Quietly, consistently, and with the same Hawley spirit that drives people to be part of something bigger than themselves.
- Learn more about the manufacturing industry in Minnesota and access Manufacturing Month resources.
- Employers, talk with your regional DEED Workforce Strategy Consultant about finding the workers to help your business grow and thrive.
- Interested in working in manufacturing, but not sure where to start? Contact staff at a CareerForce location near you.
