09/14/2026
It started with a truck, some fertilizer, and a handshake between neighbors.
John Bolinger and Richard Queen were selling fertilizer to farmers around them in the late 1950s. By 1964, they’d made it official, opening Bolinger & Queen right where our Hotchkiss store still stands today. Seed came next, then plastic pipe in the early 1970s, planting the seeds for the irrigation and water business we’re known for now.
The business changed hands a few times over the years and weathered a rough farm economy in the 1980s by expanding rather than pulling back, opening our Olathe location to stay close to the customers who needed us. Today, Scott and Todd Queen are carrying it forward, more than 65 years after it all started with a truckload of fertilizer.
Same family. Same values. Same water, still headed in the right direction.