November 1999
Leslie C. McDaniel
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Ken Lage1919 Averyone of the Classic Tractor
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Two shows for the price of one: that's what visitors to the Missouri River Valley Steam Engine Association Show got last month. In addition to all the familiar sights and sounds of that group's annual show, the Classic Tractor Calendar Club held its first-ever reunion at the show in Boonvilie in central Missouri. The host organization presented a strong show marked by variety. Demonstrations featured everything from threshing to rock crushing. Several steam engines lumbered about the showgrounds (including full size, miniatures and scale models, there were at least 14 at the show), and tractors were, simply, everywhere. In addition to the 63 Calendar Club tractors, another 400 or so were displayed as part of the MRVSEA show, and still another 150 were on hand for tractor pulls.
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'It was one of the smoothest running shows we'd had in a long time,' said MRVSEA board member Dennis Ficken. 'Everybody said they hadn't seen a finer show at Boonvilie. I thought we had one of the finest collections of different types of tractors you could find in the United States.'
Even the weather cooperated. 'Everything starts with the weather,' said John Harvey, founder of the Classic Tractor Calendar Club. 'We had three absolutely gorgeous days.'
The Classic Tractor Calendar Club reunion gave the show an extra bit of sparkle. For 10 years, John Harvey - a Missouri native now living in Delaware - has produced the Classic Farm Tractors Calendar, featuring a different rare and beautifully restored tractor each month. The Boonville show was a unique opportunity to gather as many of those 'one of a kinds' as possible. Fully 63 CTC tractors were displayed, representing 18 states and two Canadian provinces.