A display of Gade engines shown by the Thomsen family, Norfolk, Neb., at the Pierce (Neb.) Old Time Threshers Bee in September. Photo by David Thomsen.
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A 60 hp Minneapolis steam engine (owned by Brian Harris, Cambria, N.Y.) taking on a group of kids in a tug-of-war at the 2007 Western New York Gas and Steam Engine Association’s Annual Rally in Alexander, N.Y. “Each year we challenge the kids to this tug-of-war and somehow the 200 or so kids always manage to win,” Brian writes. “This is something a little different that kids of all ages really get a kick out of. We do this on Friday and Saturday evening. They beat us Friday, then on Saturday we come back for a rematch, which ends with all the kids cheering that they are victorious after beating us twice.” Photo by Bob Melville, Rochester, N.Y. Click through the Image Gallery to see mroe show photos.
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Kevin Hembrough shows a line of engines at a show in Jacksonville, Ill. Photo by Susan Eddy.
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Ron Holland’s 110 Case steamer pulling his 16-bottom John Deere plow at Heritage Park of North Iowa, Forest City. Photo by Jon Beilke, Vadnais Heights, Minn.
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On display at the Orange Spectacular: an Allis-Chalmers Model 40 combine with an Allis Model C, both owned by Jim Palmer Jr., Castalia, Iowa. Photo by Nancy Schipansky, Marshall, Minn.
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A rare Minneapolis-Moline 445 crawler next to a Minneapolis-Moline UDLX. Photo taken at the Stearns County (Albany, Minn.) Pioneer Club threshing show, Sept. 14-16, 2007. Photo by Gordon Bjorklund, Gaylord, Minn.
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Bird’s eye view of Heritage Park of North Iowa from the Beaver Creek Church bell tower. Photo by Jon Beilke, Vadnais Heights, Minn.
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Boonvile, Mo., students line up for a chance to grind corn into meal at the working exhibit Gail and Kenny Williams set up at the Missouri River Valley Steam Engine Assn. Show in Boonville in September. Photo by Janet Healy, Fulton, Mo.
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Digging in at the Albert City (Iowa) Threshermen and Collectors Show in August. “The Albert City show is famous for its vintage tractors, threshers, steam engines and other antique farm equipment. It’s a ‘must go to’ for my husband and father!” notes April Dwyer, whose husband, Kevin, took this photo. The Dwyers live in Linn Grove, Iowa.
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Pierre Babineau, Moncton, N.B., Canada and his neighbors threshing buckwheat last fall. Pierre uses machinery from his collection to cut and harvest buckwheat the old-fashioned way. The thresher, manufactured by Halls Mfg., Summerside, Prince Edward Island, dates to the 1920s. Powering the thresher is a 1930 6 hp International Harvester Type M gas engine. Photo by Edgar Babineau.
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Sawing with Jerred Ruble’s two-headed sawmill at Heritage Park of North Iowa, Forest City. Bill Haun, Forest City, is the operator and Andy Weber, Des Moines, Iowa, is taking off the lumber. Photo by Jon Beilke, Vadnais Heights, Minn.
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Sara Thomsen at the Pierce (Neb.) Old Time Threshers Bee, at the wheel of her grandpa’s International Harvester 100. Photo by Jennifer Thomsen.
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A model of a Best steam engine at the Stephenson County Antique Engine Club Show, Freeport, Ill., in July 2007. The model engine is owned by Stanley Fudge, Roscoe, Ill. and features a frame from a B.F. Avery tractor and boiler and engine from a 19-foot steamboat. Photo by Scott Johnson, Rockford, Ill.
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A line-up of threshers and engines owned by Jerred Ruble, Hanlontown, Iowa, on the job at Heritage Park of North Iowa, Forest City. Front to back: 15 hp Rumely pulling a Birdsell clover huller (Jim Evans, Iowa Falls, Iowa, steam engineer); 22 hp Wood Bros. engine pulling a 30-inch Wood Bros. thresher (John Fuls, Belmond, Iowa, steam engineer); 22 hp return-flue Minneapolis pulling a 28-inch Minneapolis thresher (Steve Langenbach, Isanti, Minn., steam engineer); 26 hp double-cylinder Minneapolis pulling a 36-inch Minneapolis thresher (Brian Paterson, Spencer, Iowa, steam engineer); 12-25 Avery gas tractor pulling a 28-inch Avery thresher (Don Hoover, Web, Iowa, tractor operator); 18 hp Greyhound pulling a 32-inch Greyhound thresher (Travis Mullenger, Hamlin, Iowa, steam engineer); 50 hp Case pulling a 36-inch Case thresher (Josh Richie, Duluth, Minn., steam engineer). Photo by Jim Oulman, Forest City.
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A long green line of John Deere tractors at the National John Deere show, Fairview, Okla., Sept. 28, 2007. Photo by Larry W. Young, Abilene, Kan.
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Chris Eddy starts a Reid engine owned by the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Photo by Janet Healy, Fulton, Mo.
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Shredding corn with an 8-roll Advance-Rumely shredder powered by a 13 hp Russell. Feeding the shredder (and owner of the steam engine) is Vern Waterman, Melbourne, Iowa. Running the steam engine is Mike Adams, Clear Lake, Iowa. Photo by Jim Oulman, Forest City, Iowa.
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Wayne Hesse (on the John Deere Model D) and Gary Devall (on the Allis-Chalmers WC) at the Vintage Equipment in Action Day, Sept. 16, 2007, at the Paul and Larry Poessnecker farm, Atkinson, Neb. The event is held every year on third weekend in September on a farm located 20 miles northeast of Atkinson. Photo by Gynell Poessnecker.
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Paul Cormier, Memramcook, N.B., Canada, binding oats in Grande-Digue with a No. 5 Massey-Harris binder. Photo by Edgar Babineau.
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Junior Bambrook and his grandson, Brent Bambrook, show their 2 hp Monitor gas engine at the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Photo by Susan Eddy.
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Howard Schnell and his two great-grandchildren (Natalie, 4, and Chloe, 1) with the 1917 International Harvester 10-20 Mogul owned by Howard’s family since 1919. “My dad bought the tractor second-hand and kept it all through the years, always at our Franklin Grove address,” Howard says. Photo taken at Living History Antique Equipment Association Show, Franklin Grove, Ill., in August 2007.
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A display of industrial tractors makes a showy exhibit at the Orange Spectacular in July in Hutchinson, Minn. The Spectacular is an all-Allis-Chalmers show (the 16th annual) put on by the Upper Midwest Allis-Chalmers Collectors Club. Photo by Nancy Schipansky, Marshall, Minn.
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A monument to old iron at Heritage Park of North Iowa, Forest City. Photo by Jon Beilke, Vadnais Heights, Minn.
Consider the lowly snapshot. Tucked in a drawer, in the pickup’s visor, stashed in a book or an album, carried in a wallet, a fading, dog-eared photo is among those things you can’t quite bring yourself to throw out. Even in battered condition, that old photo has a power to transport you to a moment you don’t want to forget.
And that is precisely the beauty of photography. Farm Collector readers demonstrated that with their contributions to this year’s “Best of Show” issue. Several months ago, we asked our readers to send us their favorite farm equipment photos from the 2007 show season. In the Image Gallery you’ll find our favorites from the dozens of photos submitted.
These photos capture the many pleasures of show season: the frenzied activity, the variety of displays, the faces, young and old. But they’re more than just pretty pictures of antique farm equipment and happy people. Take some time with them; soak up the detail. Let them remind you of the color of just-plowed dirt, of threshed grain, of green fields. Note the quality of light on a summer morning. Let those visual cues call up the sounds and smells of a show; let memory wash over you – and relive show season in the depths of winter.
To all who submitted photos for this issue, thanks for helping us travel back a bit. And now, on with the show!
Do you have a special place in your heart for the good old days of life on the American farm? Do your ears perk up at the sound of an old Johnny Popper John Deere? Do your eyes widen at the sight of a vintage Stover stationary? Then Farm Collector is for you!
