What does “fresno” from Caro’s “The Path to Power” mean

phrase-meaningword-usage

In Robert Caro’s book The Path to Power is the following passage (emphasis mine):

Road-building – fresno and mule-team road-building – was a rough business in Texas then[.]

Later on the page is this use of “fresno”:

When, a year later, his boss went broke, he paid off his young foreman’s back wage by giving him four mules and a fresno.

The word “fresno” is in lower-case. I’ve never encountered this as a common noun before. Some quick Googling turns up a definition meaning “an ash tree,” but I don’t see the connection between ash trees and road-building.

What does this expression mean? Does “fresno” as a common noun have a specific connotation or use here?

Best Answer

According to Wikipedia it is a "f/Fresno scraper", which gives

The Fresno Scraper is a machine pulled by horses used for constructing canals and ditches in sandy soil. The design of the Fresno Scraper forms the basis of most modern earthmoving scrapers, having the ability to scrape and move a quantity of soil, and also to discharge it at a controlled depth, thus quadrupling the volume which could be handled manually.

See also Merrian Webster

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