High Country Collection

Image Gallery In 2007, the odds of seeing these three variations of Cockshutt's Model 30 tractor in the same place at the same time are pretty slim. This photo was taken in Nevada, where the odds get beaten every day. From left: Gambles Farmcrest 30, Cockshutt 30, CO-OP E3.Photo courtesy Al Barkl.

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Although he can't precisely pinpoint when he decided to build a tractor collection, Elko, Nev., resident Alvin Barkl knows why he favors the brands he does. 'My early experiences were all with International Harvester or Cockshutt tractors,' Al explains. 'So I guess it is natural for me to be interested in them today.'

But for this high desert collector, the tractors represent more than just so much old iron. Instead, they help keep his childhood memories sharp and offer an avenue for making new friends and maintaining connections with old ones.

'The hobby keeps me very busy,' Al explains from the seat of his well-kept pickup and tractor tow-rig. 'There's always some show to go to, or parade to be in.' Even though subzero winter temperatures and snow are common in northern Nevada, Al notes, the parades never seem to stop. However, formal activities are few enough in winter that it's possible for him to complete a tractor restoration or two between summers. And that's just what he has been doing since moving to Elko in 2001.

Mining a few memories

Al was born shortly before World War II on a farm just northwest of Yankton, S.D. As a very young boy, he was asked to work alongside his parents and 10 siblings to keep the family's operation going. 'Those were good years, when we were still all together on the farm,' Al explains. 'We each had responsibilities, but we had plenty of fun too.'

One of his earliest chores was to collect corncobs from hog pens to fuel stock tank heaters in winter. School offered no reprieve. 'I still collected the cobs twice a day,' he recalls. 'Once in the morning before school and once at night. I used an old steel-wheeled wheelbarrow to carry them to the storage bin.'

Soon after Al started school, he was also asked to take responsibility for milking at least a couple of the family's dairy cows. 'I had six sisters and four brothers,' he says. 'As they grew up and started moving away, we younger kids had to take over.' Al recalls separating cream from the milk, first with a hand-crank separator and later with an electric McCormick-Deering model. 'We processed the milk by hand until about 1947 or '48,' he says. 'That's when rural electric came to the farm.' The years were full of wonderful memories. From playing games with his siblings, to hand picking corn, to reading poetry in countywide competitions, it was all good.

'The first tractor I drove was a McCormick-Deering 10-20, plowing with my older brother,' Al says. 'He did most of the driving, but I would steer the tractor in the furrow, which it couldn't get out of anyway.' Al spent most of that very early experience sitting on the 10-20's fender. The first tractor he ran completely by himself was the family's 1948 Cockshutt Model 30, except it wasn't officially a Cockshutt. 'Our Cockshutt was really a Gambles Farmcrest 30,' he explains. 'We bought it at the Farmcrest store in Scotland (S.D.).' As folks familiar with the Farmcrest 30 know, that tractor is really a Cockshutt 30 with a different set of decals. In any case, the tractor was a modern marvel in its time with live hydraulics and live PTO.

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