Deer Creek Sodbusters 1991 SHOW

Our show is only a one day event and is small in comparison to
many antique shows held throughout Mid-America. But we feel that we
have advantages that make our show different from other shows.

Our show is held on a real working farm which allows us the
ground to conduct more actual field demonstrations, including those
of draft horses working the field. The pace is less hectic than the
bigger shows. This provides a more leisurely family type
atmosphere, which adds to the viewing enjoyment of the crowd.

Our show began in August of 1983, as a neighborhood get-together
of local antique enthusiasts, to have fun plowing a wheat stubble
field with antique tractors. We had so much fun, we decided to make
it an annual event. For those first few years, the show was known
as the Wolff Brothers Plowing Bee, because it was sponsored by me
and my brother, John Wolff, and featured primarily plowing. As the
show grew both in size and popularity, it became necessary to form
an antique association to handle the responsibility of putting it
on.

In January, 1987, Deer Creek Sodbusters, Inc. was chartered as a
Nebraska non-profit corporation. In the years since the Sodbusters
took over the show, it has developed into a complete antique show
with new features and exhibits being added every year. For our 1991
show, we introduced our sawmill as a new feature. It is a Belsaw
mill, manufactured in the 1920’s, for which we obtained the
main ‘parts’ for $100.00 a couple of years ago. We finally
got the frame work built and completed assembly the week before the
show. We were still making ‘adjustments’ and ‘fine
tuning’ the mechanisms right up to the show, but we were able
to demonstrate it during the show and actually made lumber for the
crowd out of some cedar logs.

Another attraction new to the show for 1991 was the
demonstration of a Joliet 6-hole wooden spring-type corn sheller.
This sheller was owned by a farmer in the neighborhood who had used
it to dso custom shelling all up and down the Deer Creek Valley and
throughout Johnson County, Nebraska. This was back in the days when
corn was harvested on the ear and later shelled out of the crib.
The sheller was donated to the club by the heirs of the original
owner. It has been preserved in good working condition. It was a
real pleasure to many ‘old timers’ from the community to
see it in operation again, and to remember their younger days when
they used to scoop corn into that very machine.

Contributing to the preservation of agricultural history is a
rewarding experience, but it is particularly special preserving a
part of the history of the local community where one was born and
raised.

Our 1992 show is scheduled for Sunday, August 9. It will be our
10th annual event. In recognition of the Wolff Brothers, who
collect John Deere tractors, John Deere will be the featured
tractor line. As a special guest, LeRoy Klein of Minot, North
Dakota, plans to attend. LeRoy was founder and first president of
the John Deere Two-Cylinder Club.