About Us

Columbia Crane began in the early 2000s but began isn’t really the right word, evolved would be more appropriate. Our “history” started earlier when owner, Mike Beattie, created a company called Pacific Northwest Infrastructure which built communications sites in Washington and Montana. He returned to working in Wenatchee when he saw an opportunity to put his many years of experience working on and around cranes by acquiring a boom truck larger than any operating in the area at that time.

That acquisition, pictured in the background, a 1500 National Boom Truck, Mike’s wife affectionally named “Baby Boomer”. Mike began by working out of his Peshastin home, knocking on doors, handing out business cards and talking to a lot of people. He has always believed that if you do good work and charge a fair price, the business will come. That belief has paid off, today he has a fleet of eight cranes (from the original 36 ton up to a 365 ton Liebherr), the newest being a 2020 –60 ton boom truck that has a 151’ of main boom and is a one-man operation.

Columbia Crane has also expanded into trucking including over-dimensional hauling. Mike is no longer a “one-man show”, his staff has grown also to include his long time bookkeeper, an operations manager, an inside sales manager, outside sales, and great group of crane operators and mechanics (but working in the field is still his favorite choice). Mike and his staff have built a reputation for timeliness, accuracy, and availability.

While he no longer strictly relies on an innate ability and experience to calculate lifts (there is a computer program his sales manager uses) he still approves the jobs that involve the more complicated lifts (he doesn’t believe in relying solely on computer software). Building a business from “scratch” has been a challenge in an ever changing business and economy but the team at Columbia Crane is here to meet your needs today and in to the future.