A Vision of the Past:
Colorado man re-creates farm of his youth
By Bryan Welch
Photographs by Jonathan Waugh
It all started with a vision. Otis Mellenbruch bought eight acres in the pines above Rye, Colo., in 1963. Scraps of old farm machinery on the property gave him an idea. The idea became a vision. The vision became an obsession.
Today, Otis' eight acres are an open-air museum containing thousands of machines, implements, tools and gadgets, tastefully arranged under the trees and in four sheds built for the purpose.
Otis has a gift for understatement. He could equip 20 farmers to the hilt.
There are tractors, harrows, plows, planters, headers, shockers and threshers. Burr-grinders, oat crimpers, gas engines, grindstones, saws and wagons round out the collection. A 3-foot cast iron kettle sits on its original stand. A horse-drawn hay tedder, used to fluff wet hay lying on the ground, sports a plaque reading "Property of State Prison." He started with a single sheet of 4xS-foot pegboard to display his collection. Now, you can stroll his eight acres and never be more than 20 feet from an antique.
Born in Fairview, Kan., in 1914, Otis grew up through the transitions from horse power to steam power to gasoline tractors. All three technologies are represented in his collection. He started out helping on his Dad's custom-threshing crew when he was 8 years old. His job was to operate the hand-clutch, putting the steam tractor in and out of gear. He had to lift himself completely off the floor of the tractor, pulling with all his weight to move the clutch.
"In those days, you did things younger," he says.
Before they had the steam engine, his father and brother did custom threshing with a 16-horse team.
"We did anything to make a little money," he says.