Timberjack was founded in Woodstock,Ontario in the 1950s by Wesley Maggill and Robert Simons, who designed an articulated four-wheel drive tractor with a winch at the back.

They produced a prototype and production took off from there. There were affiliations with King Trailer ind. and with Timberland Ellicott Corp. before Eaton Corporation purchased Timberjack and named it the Forestry Equipment Division.The traditional color of all Timberjack products was a reddish orange.

The later green colored machines were made by John Deere. Timberjack was owned by the Eaton Corporation in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. In 1984 Timberjack made a leveraged buyout from Eaton to become an independent company.