Every Labor Day weekend since 1953, the Western Minnesota Steam
Threshers Reunion Show has been held at Rollag, Minn. 2003 was the
show’s 50th anniversary, and in celebration the club held a
couple of special ’50’ activities.
50-Bottom Pull
The most notable activity was the impressive 50-bottom plowing
demonstration, modeled after the famous 1911 plow test at Purdue
University, West Lafayette, Ind. Three Rumely Model E 30-60
OilPulls pulled an Oliver 50-bottom plow in that memorable event,
and it provided the M. Rumely Co. with more than a little
publicity.
Two years before the show’s golden anniversary, club members
were sitting around discussing what they should do to mark the
event. Jerry Mandt, Wahpeton, N.D., put forward the idea of
recreating the famous 50-bottom plowing demonstration, and it took
off from there.
Wanting the re-creation to be true to the original, club members
decided to locate three Model E 30-60 Rumely Oil Pull tractors, as
used in the original trial, for the pull. However, Oliver plows of
the type used in the original trial are hard to find these days, so
they opted to substitute John Deere gangplows, instead. The Oil
Pulls used in the recreation belong to Dennis Powers, Ogden, Iowa;
Murray Johnson, Langruth, Manitoba, Canada; and Kenney Kass,
Dunkerton, Iowa.
The individual plows were chained to the main beam, which was
made from 66 feet of 7-inch-square, 1/4-inch-thick steel. To keep
it all working together 233 feet of chain was looped through 13
pulleys: two on each of the Oil Pulls and seven on the beam.
After two practice turns the plows were dropped in the ground.
Note the signs on the Oil Pull canopies, duplicates of those used
in the 1911 demonstration.
The 50-bottom plow rig was put together with plows supplied by
Mark Knox, Fisher, Minn., 10-bottom; Mark Pedersen, Luverne, N.D.,
14-bottom; Jim Briden, Sabin, Minn., 10-bottom (added to Jim’s
was a two-bottom extension from Kevin Anderson, Andover, S.D.); Kee
Groshong, Columbia, Mo., six-bottom; and Peter Mandt, Wahpeton,
N.D., eight-bottom.
Setting Up
I had heard they were going to test the whole outfit on the
Wednesday before the Labor Day show. I figured that would be a good
time to go and watch, as I knew I would be busy with my own engine
on the Saturday of the official plow day. I called club member Jim
Briden, the designated chairman responsible for overseeing the
50-plow hitch, to ask if I could come and watch. ‘No, you
can’t come and watch,’ he said. ‘You can come and
help!’
I left early Wednesday morning to make the two-hour drive, and
to get there early enough to make sure I could help. As it was,
they had plenty of help, and things didn’t really get rolling
until about 11 a.m., leaving me plenty of time to visit with
folks.
It was great being there on Wednesday to take pictures, as there
were only about 300 people on hand, whereas on Saturday at the
official running it’s estimated close to 10,000 people showed
up to watch the demonstration.
Since the famous ‘Hills of Rollag’ wouldn’t provide
the needed flat land for the demonstration, the club chose a field
1/4-mile wide and about 3/4-mile long situated 8 miles north and
west of the show grounds.
Because of the drought this area had been experiencing, the west
half of the field was extremely dry and hard, but the east half had
held moisture better and had good, mellow soil.
The original idea was to test-pull the plow rig using modern
John Deere tractors so they could check the rigging. But once
everything was readied, they hooked up the Oil Pulls for a true
test. They also were going to unhook the plow and use a modern
tractor to turn it at the end of the round. Once again they decided
to stick with the Oil Pulls, and it’s really good they did,
because making the corners was part of the show. The way they made
the first turn, it was like they had been doing it for 15
years.
Starting the first round, which was made with the plows up just
to get everything in line, the crew stopped a half dozen times to
adjust the chains and the tractor spacing. After making two
complete turns they were back at the starting point. They stopped,
everybody had a soda pop, and then they commenced to plow.
They went about 50 feet and started putting the plows in the
ground. At first, the tractor operators were worried the 25 guys
and gals riding the plows to run the levers would have to get off
because of their additional weight, but this didn’t prove to be
a problem. The ground on the west side of the field was so hard
some people rode the plow beams to get the plows to go in the
ground, but once they hit the mellow ground on the east side the
plows sucked themselves right in.
A 40 HP under mounted Avery fronts a line of steam engines at
the 2003 show in Rollag, Minn. The Western Minnesota Steam
Threshers Reunion had 62 steam engines on hand to celebrate their
50th-annual show.
The three Oil Pulls sounded really good under load -every so
often they would get in sync with each other, making a really sweet
sound. I walked along-side a drive wheel as they pulled, and I
noticed there was some wheel slippage, but it was minimal.
They cut a swath close to 60 feet wide each pass, but since they
wanted to save the rest of the ground for Saturday they only plowed
about 400 feet on Wednesday. I don’t impress easily, but I have
to say this was very impressive.
The original plan was to test-plow from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., but
so many people showed up to see the rig in operation they ended up
plowing until 5 p.m., just to give everybody on hand a chance to
see the rig at work.
Looking north at the 62 steam engines on hand
for the 2003 Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion.
The Second 50
The second ’50’ activity the club decided on was to have
50 steam engines on the show grounds. This proved a success, as
they ended up with 62 engines, including miniatures and scale
models. Nick Olsen of Fargo, N.D., deserves credit for this part of
the event, as he was in charge of obtaining the needed engines and
handling the necessary freighting.
I brought two engines up, my 60 HP Case and Norman Grant’s
65 HP Case. Both these engines are normally housed and active at
our show at Rose City, Minn. I ran my engine and Nick ran
Norman’s Case. I think we fared really well on Saturday Nick
threshed with Norman’s and I got to put mine on one of the
sawmills at the show. The mill, by the way, also has a 52-inch
blade and a planer. I switched over to coal while sawing, and my
little engine really worked well and sounded great. I was holding
my own until they rolled a 4-foot diameter log on the carriage –
once it was squared up it proved to be too much for me to handle.
After about one hour on the mill I backed out and let John Jurry
from Valley City, N.D., belt up with his 25 HP Gaar-Scott. It was
fun while it lasted.
With 50 big engines on the grounds the guys running the water
trucks were kept really busy. They did an excellent job, but by
Sunday afternoon almost everybody was burning coal we really raised
heck with their woodpile.
On Friday afternoon we took all the engines out to the west end
of the show grounds on the terraces and took a group photo, and it
was quite a line-up, as the pictures show.
For anyone interested, an 80-minute, narrated video of
Saturday’s plowing demonstration is available in VHS or DVD
format. The recording focuses on the mechanical aspect as well as
the actual plowing demonstration, and can be acquired by sending
$18 to Tiger Productions, 25471 90 Ave. S., Hawly, MN 56549.
Steam enthusiast Joe C. Steinhagen is a regular
contributor to Steam Traction. Contact him at: 11980 Kluver
Addition Road S.E., Alexandria, MN 56308; (320)
762-2706.
