Idaho-grown and woman-owned—the story of MarCon Inc. is one of perseverance and triumph over the odds.

It was the mid-1980s and the Idaho farm economy was hurting. Elaine Martin was faced with losing the family farm, an injured husband, and a renter who was only able to pay half the farm rent. She began looking for construction work, but ran into resistance from the male-dominated industry. Elaine had no construction background and did not know anyone in the highway construction field.

Then she heard about the Idaho Department of Transportation's highway fencing needs. She had been raised on a farm and knew how to build fences, so she started bidding the highway work. She worked days in the field and nights and weekends on the books. During the winter she went to the state library to study fencing and small business management.

The first four years were extremely difficult. A big blow came when the Idaho Department of Transportation refused to certify Elaine’s company as “woman-owned” because they didn't believe she was actually running the business. Elaine found work without the certification. A second blow came at the end of her third year. She was more than $50,000 in debt with no expectation for future success.

In 1988, Elaine reshaped her fence-building company and began guardrail construction. She worked in the field building guardrails alongside her crew. The same year, a local guardrail contractor announced he wanted to retire. Elaine agreed to run his company for one season to prove she could do it. She passed his test, and in early 1989 she purchased the business with an IOU. Because Elaine could not qualify for a bank loan, the seller agreed to finance the sale. By the end of the year, Elaine had successfully completed $1.2 million in contracts and was profitable.