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Celebrating Ag Heritage
Heidrick Collection gives new life to classics
By Leslie C. McDaniel
A lifetime collection of farm tractors now has a life of its own, thanks to the vision of a California farmer. Housed in the Heidrick Ag History Center, Woodland, Calif., a world-class collection of antique agricultural equipment tells the story of the mechanized grain harvest.
Established by Fred Heidrick as a non-profit foundation, the Heidrick Collection represents about one-quarter of the equipment he's collected in the past 50 years. Displayed in a large, airy building, the equipment - including familiar names as well as oddballs -- recounts the evolution of mechanized farm equipment. But it's more than just machinery.
"One of the most wonderful things about it is that people share their memories when they visit here," says Melissa Jordan, assistant to the museum's executive director. "It's like they revisit their lives."
"It's been a part of my life," he says. "It was something that did the work years ago, when people really needed the horsepower that tractors could provide. We worked with these things through good times and bad, and just decided to save them from the junkyard."
The Heidrick Collection takes in everything from Deere to Fordson, Holt to Best, McCormick to Case to Avery. And then there's the less familiar names: Gray, COD, Belt Rail.
"It's kind of like a family," Heidrick says. "You never have two alike, and the parents never favor one over another. We just wanted to show the equipment used in daily life on the farm."
He should know. Heidrick's farmed all his life, and he was tinkering with machinery at a time when his peers were still mastering the intricacies of tying their shoes. "Dad's been mechanical since he was a kid," says his daughter, Linda Heidrick Lucchesi. "It was out of necessity: He quit school after eighth grade to help feed his family." "I was from a poor family," Heidrick says. "There were six of us kids, and dad was a school teacher. He couldn't make enough money to feed half of us. So we did lots of odd jobs: I remember overhauling an old Fordson when I was just a kid. That really educated me and my brother, Joe, on how to handle equipment without getting hurt."
That mechanical wizardry continues on in a younger generation of Heidricks. Linda's son, Rusty Lucchesi, shares his grandfather's passion for vintage equipment. "I've learned everything from him," he says. During World War II, when equipment and parts were all but unavailable, Fred Heidrick's mechanical skill kept tractors, harvesters and implements ticking. That kind of resourcefulness has resurfaced in his grandson.
"One thing I've noticed that makes me different from guys I've worked with is that I'm less afraid to do something not quite 'right'," Lucchesi says. "You just make it run. It doesn't make any difference if it's right or wrong. Later, you can go back and fix it 'right'."