Avid Collectors of Ottawa Engines

Enlarge Image Image Gallery George and Helen Myers, keeping watch over their exhibit at the show in Ottawa, Kan., this summer. Photo by G. Wayne Walker Jr.

Meet George and Helen Myers, ambassadors for Ottawa. Ottawa engines, that is. 

The Blain, Penn., couple have been collectors for years. Phonographs, classic cars, they've done it all. But these days they've narrowed their scope to Ottawa engines, originally produced in Ottawa, Kan. They're avid collectors - they have 31 pieces of the Ottawa line, including tractor saws, engines and drag saws - but they're also unofficial ambassadors. From their home base on the east coast, where Ottawa is slowly becoming better known, they spread the word, maintain a comprehensive collectors' registry, and generate good will.

"We're the eastern contingent," George said. "There's getting to be more interest in Ottawa in our part of the country, since we started up with it."

Helen said easterners are starting to include Ottawa engines in their collections.

"I think they're starting to realize that an Ottawa is a very important and unique piece of equipment," she said. "And I'd like to think we had something to do with that."

The couple's own entrance into the Ottawa line came by accident.

After he retired in 1991, George went to a sale to get an engine to rebuild. That deal fell through, but on his way home, he happened on to a farm sale.

"Well there was nothing there but junk," he said. "But I wanted to buy something that day. I saw a piece of junk with 'Ottawa, Kansas' on it. It had a saw blade on it, but nobody knew what is was. Finally, somebody said it probably had had an engine with it, that it was probably a drag saw, but he acted like it was not the biggest bargain in the world.

"Eventually, I bought a drag saw. I thought it was the greatest thing in the world. I'd never seen anything like it, but my fellow engine collectors didn't think much of it," he continued. "Well, that reaction intrigued us, because we're kind of rebels. So we found out everything we could about Ottawa Engines."

What they found was more than a sleepy rural company.

"I thought Mr. Warner (company founder C.E. Warner) was a great man," George said. "He did his thing, his way. Really, he was up there with Edison and Ford ... they were three great men."