The Square Turn Tractor
(Page 3 of 4)
July 2009
Loretta Sorensen
Because 70 percent of the machine’s weight sat above the drive wheels, the tractor had excellent traction. A farmer could plow right up to a fence, making tight turns previously possible only when farming with horses. The Square Turn was also advertised as having “a real power lift, operated direct from the engine, raising or lowering the plows at a touch of the foot even when the engine is idling.”
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The Square Turn’s top speed was 3 miles per hour. When the tractor was moving forward, its drive wheels were directly ahead of the operator. A caster wheel in the rear followed the furrow and assisted in steering. Attention was called to the simplicity of the tractor’s design, which delivered accessibility through removable cylinder heads and hand holes in the lower half of the crankcase, as well as complete enclosure of all parts, offering protection against dust.
The tractor’s spark plugs were water-cooled, with complete water-jacketing around the valves. The oil system consisted of drilled passages in the main castings. The ball bearing mounting of the idler gear and kerosene-burning devices were all noted to “stand out prominently as advanced and exclusive features.”
Home at last
The Square Turn is the only tractor of any significance manufactured in Nebraska. Because of that, Norfolk’s Elkhorn Valley Museum & Research Center made a rare exception to museum policy: When a 1918 Square Turn was offered at a Dowagiac, Mich., auction in 1991, the museum stepped up to the plate and bought the relic for $19,500.
“It’s the only item the museum has ever purchased,” says museum director Ruthie Galitz. “Since it was manufactured here in Norfolk, it seemed to make sense that one of the last models should be housed here.” The tractor’s original owner is believed to have been a Battle Creek, Mich., farmer who built up the pulley wheel with oak to make his threshing machine run faster.
One of three known surviving Square Turns, the tractor made a triumphant return to its home state in an appearance at the Pierce, Neb., threshing bee and LaVitsef Time parade. (It was previously featured at the Nebraska State Fair during the state’s 1985 centennial.)
One rare bird
Few other Square Turn tractors are known to exist. One is part of the collection amassed by the late Carl Mehmke. Carl found the 15-30 with 2-bottom plow in Lewistown, Mont., near his museum in Great Falls. “It hadn’t been used for quite a few years when my dad and I found it,” he said in an interview late last year, before his death in March 2009. “It was pretty rusty and it took us a while to free up the motor and restore it.”