Unsuspecting Customer Buys Rare Cockshutt Tractor

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Henry’s 1957 Cockshutt Golden Arrow after restoration. Photo Courtesy Henry Hummelbeck

After living in Chicago for 23 years, Henry and Margaret Hummelbeck bought a hobby farm near Mauston, Wis. “The ‘hobby’ part was hunting whitetail deer,” Henry says. “That was the closest we could find to Chicago, and it was 220 miles away.”

The Hummelbecks initially used the old farmhouse as a summerhouse. Eventually, needing a tractor to clear the driveway in the winter, Henry visited a local implement dealer, only to discover that the small tractors he preferred for the small acreage were budget busters. “I looked at Ford tractors and others that size, but those little tractors were too expensive,” he says. “Then I saw a Cockshutt tractor. I got the price on it down to $800 and bought it.”

Henry used the tractor to plow his driveway and do other chores around the farm. When the transmission went out, he took it in to have it fixed. “That was when I realized what I had,” he says. “It was a 1957 Golden Arrow Cockshutt.” An experimental tractor, the Golden Arrow is rare today. Just 135 were made as demonstration tractors. To show off a new draft-sensing 3-point hitch system, Cockshutt put the hitch, rear end and transmission of the new model 550 onto a Model 35. The original intent was to recall all of the Golden Arrows and rebuild them into Model 550 tractors, but many were never returned to the factory.

Restoration project

The old tractor suddenly became too valuable a machine to use for farm chores. Henry decided to restore the machine, turning to the International Cockshutt Club Inc. for help. An article in the Cockshutt Quarterly, the Cockshutt club’s magazine, helped him restore his tractor, which he describes as being “in real bad shape.”

“I took the whole tractor apart, put on new tires and restored it into mint condition,” he says. “The only problem now is that I fixed it up so good that I’m afraid to use it and put a scratch or dent into it. So it’s sitting in the barn. I take it out once in a while, but I still don’t use it,” he says with a laugh. A new Jeep has taken over driveway chores.

Hunting implements

After restoring the Golden Arrow, Henry started attending Cockshutt shows. There he saw a variety of Cockshutt tractors and implements and decided to find some Cockshutt implements for himself.