Biggest flying American flag, Big Foot and Big Bud.
That was the tagline the I & I Antique Tractor Club used for its Half Century of Progress show in Rantoul, Ill. Held Aug. 27-30, 2009, at the Rantoul National Aviation Center Airport, the show runs every other year.
The shows premier sponsor was McCormick. The CEO of McCormick, Rodney Miller, was there with his 1086 IH tractor that he had restored in his dad’s, Gene Miller’s, honor.
There was quite a flurry of activity and lots of cameras flashing around one of the main attractions, the Big Bud 747. The tractor came from Sandy, Mont., and is 15 feet tall and 22 feet wide (with the wheels on). It weighs 122,000 pounds and has nearly 1,000 hp.
Anyone for a quick BBQ while racing down the tundra on your snowmobile?!
I heard rumors that there were at least 700 golf carts running around the show on the day I was there. Understandable, when you take in the fact that the show sets on 100 acres of concrete and 400 acres of farmland.
The club doesn’t have a specific feature for the show so there was a variety of makes and models of tractors. You can also see field demonstrations, hand corn husking demos, tractor pulls and a stage show with Orion Samuelson and Max Armstrong.
Don’t forget to mark your calendars for 2011 to attend the next Half Century of Progress big show. There are already big plans in the works!
See you down the road!