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What Is Your Logo?

We call the little creature we have as our logo a muddog but it's actually an illustration based on a real animal - a tiger salamander!

Tiger Salamanders are carnivorous amphibians that look like a cross between a frog and a lizard, with little legs and long tails. Their average size is 6 - 8 inches (15.02 - 20.3 cm) though they can grow as big as 14 inches in length (35 cm). Tiger Salamander larvae have gills that are later absorbed when they metamorphose (these gills are the red "tentacles" you see in our muddog).

Tiger Salamanders are the largest land-dwelling salamander on Earth as well as the most widespread salamander species in North America. They can be found throughout the United Sates, southern Canada, and eastern Mexico. They like to live near ponds, lakes, or slow-moving streams, but stay underground in burrows up to 2 feet (60 cm) deep and usually return to the water only to breed.

Tiger Salamanders enjoy pretty long lives, with an average lifespan of 12 - 15 years in the wild.

So how did a tiger salamander become the inspiration for a logo of an oilfield services company?

Well, before CETCO Oilfield Services even existed as an independent company, there was another company, Gulf States Environmental, which had just developed a technology for water filtration. The president of Gulf States was trying to think of a way to grab people's attention as they walked by his booth at trade shows. Being an aquatic veterinarian by trade, he knew that tiger salamanders were very "interesting" looking creatures. So he brought a tank full of them to a trade show and sure enough people stopped and looked, giving him the perfect opportunity to not only explain the creature, but the services his company offered as well.

Eventually Gulf States was sold to Colloid Environmental Technologies, and in 2003, the Environmental Offshore Services Division of Colloid Environmental Technologies spun off and became CETCO Oilfield Services Company, a separately incorporated entity that is a wholly owned subsidiary of CETCO, which is subsequently owned by AMCOL International. The gentleman that was the president of Gulf States is now the President of CETCO Oilfield Services Company!

So there you have it!

In 2005, Illinois (location of AMCOL corporate headquarters), named the tiger salamander its state amphibian!