Tonka

Tonka was begun by Lynn Everett Baker, Avery F. Crounse, and Alvin F. Tesch in 1946, but it didn’t start out as Tonka; instead Mound Metalcraft in 1946. Tesch re-engineered some old toy concepts left by their building’s previous tenants and dubbed the toys “Tanka,” which means “big” in the Dakota Sioux tongue.