For nearly 30 years Dixie Chopper has been building tomorrow's lawn mowers today, creating the most productive machines in the mowing industry.

Dixie's 20 models range from a mower with a 23-horsepower engine and a 34-inch cut to one with a 33-horsepower engine and a 74-inch cut. With gasoline-, diesel- and propane-powered units available, there is a Dixie Chopper to meet virtually everyone's lawn-mowing needs.

A down-to-earth, self-made businessman, Dixie Chopper owner/founder Art Evans didn’t invent the zero-turning-radius mower but he perfected it after seeing one at the Indiana State Fair in the 1970s. He knew then and there ZTR was the future of mowing, and that the familiar old lawn tractor with a steering wheel would soon be going the way of black-and-white TV.

The first Dixie Chopper was completed on the Evans family farm near Fillmore, Ind., in April 1980. Now, 28 years later, Evans is still chairman of the board of an internationally known company featuring 20 mower models that embody the slogan “The World’s Fastest Lawn Mower” (one with a 72-inch deck can mow a football field in less than 10 minutes). Speed, quality and reliability are Dixie Chopper’s attributes.

The 66-year-old Evans doesn’t even have an office at Dixie Chopper headquarters, despite being named Indiana Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006. He still wears a Dixie ballcap to work and roams the factory, troubleshooting whenever and wherever necessary. His favorite hangout is the Research and Development unit, where “Area 51” is painted on the door and an alien figure keeps visitors at bay as work continues on the next generation of Dixie Chopper mowers.

In one six-figure venture, the Orange County Choppers gang of “American Chopper” television fame built a Dixie Chopper Bike, utilizing the company’s distinctive lawn mower parts. The resulting two-part segment on the "American Chopper" TV series has aired literally dozens of times. The motorcycle helped introduce a new user base to Dixie Chopper as well as generating sales of toys, T-shirts and other novelties.

But the independent thinking that probably defined Dixie Chopper was Evans’ earlier idea to mount a 150-horsepower Chinook helicopter engine on a standard Dixie to prove its durability. He reasoned that if the pumps, frame and all could withstand the power of that engine and speeds of 50 mph or more, the standard Dixie Chopper mower could withstand a lifetime of weekly pounding. That jet mower creation also ended up on TV dozens of times. Most notably it was the centerpiece of the 1994 season finale of “Home Improvement” sitcom as comic Tim Allen used the jet mower to win a lawn mower race against Bob Vila.

So, when it came time to roll out the LP3000 propane-powered mower in earnest, Dixie Chopper did it by embarking on a 2,000-mile round trip. National Sales Director Matt Land rode a propane mower (rigged up to roadworthy and do 35-40 mph) from Dixie Chopper headquarters in Coatesville, Ind., to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s front door in Sacramento, Calif. Traveling historic Route 66 whenever possible, Land’s message was simple: Save both the green in the environment and your wallet with the world’s first and only true propane-powered mower.

Dixie Chopper remains one of only two family-owned and operated lawnmower-manufacturing companies left in America. And the more than 100,000 Dixie Chopper mowers out in the field busily making “tall grass short,” (as Evans likes to say) were all made in the USA  –- manufactured and assembled in central Indiana.

Dixie Chopper now employs approximately 125 people at three Indiana locations -- its Fillmore/Coatesville headquarters; a 100,000-square-foot facility in Greencastle that houses its assembly lines and Media Department; and at the Dixie Chopper Business Center. The latter is located at the Greencastle/Putnam County Airport, where Dixie Chopper Air operates the terminal, and the company has a restaurant, 12 hotel rooms and a banquet room that are available to the public.

For more information call 765.246.7737 or visit http://www.dixiechopper.com/.