Box 666, Madison, South Dakota 57042
See the past in full color! Visit Prairie Village, Madison,
South Dakota, August 22, 23, and 24 for the Annual Steam Threshing
Jamboree. We will be plowing with horses and steam, making our own
shingles and lathe, and threshing with steam and gas. Some 75 gas
tractors and a dozen or so steamers will be operating, ranging from
engine, (35-80), including a rare Townsend kerosene tractor which
looks and is built like a steam traction engine but runs on
kerosene. One will be able to see all the engines in action every
day of the Jamboree at the 2:00 p.m. parade. Engineers ‘belt
up’ their rigs, and coal smoke, hard oil, and steam smells fill
the air all day long, Frontier living of the late 1800’s is
brought to life for the visitor in the 20 buildings of Prairie
Village. In addition to the sod house and country school, steam
merry-go-round and the many other attractions, we have added the
Junius bank, a small town bank which closed after the
‘crash’ in 1929, and the print shop and art studio which
houses one of the first presses brought to S.D. as well as an old
ceramic kiln. If your feet get tired you will enable to give them a
rest by riding around the grounds on the narrow gauge railway with
its 1880 car pulled by a steam locomotive. Whenever you’re
hungry you can get a delicious home-cooked meal at one of the
church groups’ lunch stands or have a bag of popcorn purchased
at the steam popcorn wagon. This year we will also have an antique
doll collection housed in the doll house, an authentic jail, and an
early farmstead complete with animals. So we hope to see you at
Prairie Village to relive the good old days of threshing and to
visit the buildings used by homesteaders. Don’t forget Sunday
services in the Village Church at 7 a.m. and 8 a.m.