Wilcoxen Construction is an earthmoving and demolition company based in Avon, Illinois. The business was founded in 1991, but Richard Wilcoxen has been moving dirt since he was a young man. “When I was a kid I used to run around with the tractor and loader and try and build and fix wash-outs and dry dams,” he explains. “Then I got a bulldozer and just got bigger and bigger. I just like being outside and playing in the dirt.”

Wilcoxen owns a fleet of earthmoving equipment including dozers, excavators, CTLs and backhoes, and as an owner-operator he covers a lot of ground. “We do lot of farm work, [earthen] dams and terraces. We’ve built quite a few ponds this year. We’ve done room additions. We’ve done large building demolition. We do septic tanks. We pour some concrete—a little bit of everything.”