In the fall of 1996, Don Atkinson Sr and Don Atkinson Jr decided to start their own excavating business and D.A. Diggers was born. Don Sr worked that old equipment and got our name known locally. The following summer, Don Jr's first son was born and he decided to work with Don Sr and quit his job that kept him away from home.

In the spring of 1998, we expanded a little more and Tonia was brought aboard. Tonia is Don Sr's daughter. She currently drives our quad axle dump truck.

In 1999, we wanted to have a more year-round income base, so we took over "the beer run". This involved driving a semi truck to Milwaukee to Miller Brewery to pick up beer and bring back to the distributors in Prairie du Chien. We had this run until the spring of 2012 with several interesting drivers along the way.

Somewhere along the line, we decided that we wanted to get into more of the trucking industry. We have had several semi trucks and drivers throughout the years. We worked with local and national companies to move goods all over the 48 states. After several years and watching the price of fuel continue to rise, we decided to pull in the reigns and our trucks now stay local year-round.

In 2003, LaVern came aboard to assist Don Jr with the excavating. At this time, Don Sr was mostly managing the trucking and the business. LaVern is Don Sr's youngest son. Although LaVern works full-time at another job, he still helps out Don Jr on weekends when needed. In 2003, we also became a corporation.

In 2004, Audra came aboard to manage the office. Audra is married to Don Jr. Besides managing the business aspect, Audra is our person who goes to get parts and helps out Don Jr when needed.

In 2006, we started a new venture in Boscobel with our Lawn Creations. This was the selling of cement lawn ornaments, colored mulch, landscape rock and specialty rock. We had some great people helping us out, including Don Sr's wife Joan, niece Darcie, LaVern's wife Sara, cousin John, and Tonia and Audra at times. We tried, but it did not make business sense to keep this portion of the business going. In the fall of 2012, we moved what was left of the lawn ornaments to Wauzeka to try to sell from home.

The next generation is now involved. That baby born in 1997, Tyler, has been his dad's right hand man since about 2007. That is, during summer vacation and on weekends. During the summer of 2012, Don Jr's daughter Haley (born in 2000 and seen in the excavator picture at the top) also learned the art of excavation and running the skid steer. Some customers and contractors think it is cute to see a little boy or girl running equipment, but they have been around it their entire lives and do a better job than some grown men!

As of the fall of 2012, you can see we are all about family in this business. Don Jr takes care of the excavating with help from family, Don Sr drives one of the semi-end dump trucks and manages the other trucks, Tonia drives the quad and Audra takes care of the office. Our main concern is to make the customer happy; we hope to make you happy next!