About Harper Companies

While working for a local concrete company, Rulon Harper was displeased with the prospect of being laid off due to the winter weather. Trying to make ends meet, he vowed that he would have his own company and that his employees would work year-round, earning a steady living to support their families. So, the next summer, Rulon set out on his own by purchasing a dump truck and hiring a driver. The two of them garnered a number of jobs finishing concrete. Little did Rulon know, his big break was right around the corner.

That summer, the Tailings Pond in Magna had a breach and, as luck would have it, the big company in the area was in the midst of a strike. Rulon worked around the clock at his “day job” finishing concrete while his driver drove the dump truck. Rulon would then relieve the driver and drive all night. After days of working around the clock, Rulon was thrilled with the payoff.

The next spring, Rulon found himself with a lot of business, so he purchased another truck and his first Caterpillar.  He quit his job at the other company and started Harper Excavating. In those first years, Rulon did it all—he worked all day on the jobs then spent his nights and evenings servicing and fueling the equipment and lining up additional jobs. On Sundays, he hustled up more work by driving through subdivisions and neighborhoods in the Salt Lake area to find people who were preparing to dig a basement or grade their yards. His knack for winning people’s trust and friendship paid off.

Over the next 10 years, Rulon worked hard and continued to take on larger and larger projects, building a reputation for transparency, reliability, and quality.

In the late 70’s, Rulon experienced a supply issue that prompted him to start Harper Sand & Gravel. He was purchasing a load at the local gravel pit, but when he pulled up to the scale house the owner of the pit told him to go dump his load because he needed it for a concrete pour early the next morning. It was then and there that Rulon decided to start his own crushing business so nobody could ever have that control over him again. In 1977, Harper Sand & Gravel was born.

By 1979, the company landed its first million-dollar job—a $1.25 million dollar contract for excavating and site work for the new UTA Bus Terminal. The project required Harper to de-water the entire site, do all cut and fill work, footings, and import subgrade. In the early 1980’s the company expanded its footprint to Northern Nevada and was instrumental in the flood control projects resulting from the record flooding in the spring of 1983.

Today, Harper has all types of crushing equipment and wash plants, and we recycle concrete rubble and asphalt. We supply millions of tons of pit run, granular barrow, gravel, sand, and road base products to our excavating, contracting, and ready mix divisions along with several million tons of aggregate materials to many commercial customers, asphalt contractors, airport projects, home owners, and friends.

1986 saw the formation of Harper Contracting which was founded to complement the Harper Excavating by managing and coordinating teams of construction personnel on numerous large-scale job sites. The company, which has grown tremendously over the years, specializes in commercial and residential construction, including heavy highway construction, golf course construction, residential subdivision infrastructure, large piping projects, airport runways and parking lots, retail shopping centers, and other commercial buildings.

Harper Ready Mix was founded in April 2002, starting with one batch plant and a dozen trucks. In the first five years, the business grew to include 85 mixers and four batch plants. Additional batch plants were added over the years.

In January of 2006, Harper Precast was born and has grown tremendously. The company manufactures catch basins of all sizes and shapes, noise walls of any height or face design, MSE walls, intake and outflow structures, and just about anything that can be built using concrete.

In the past five decades, the Harper Companies have had many acquisitions; we’ve sold  some parts of the company, changed geographies, and then returned and rebuilt. No matter how big or small we were over the years—we started with one employee and have had up to 1,000 employees and $200 million in revenue—or where we’ve operated—Utah, North Dakota, California—we’ve always maintained Rulon’s the values and work ethic that Rulon displayed in the early days.

We are committed to quality, reliability, and integrity on each and every job, no matter what.