301 Lincoln St. Longmont, Colorado 80501
The Yesteryear Farm & Home Show was held August 16, 17 and
18, 1991 as part of the Boulder Co. Fair in Longmont, Colorado.
This show has been a part of the fair for several years now, and
has become a popular event with both exhibitors and spectators.
This year’s event was again a success, and with the
exception of a short Friday afternoon downpour, good weather was
present the entire show. Our show this year had more scheduled
events than in past years, and there was a good turnout all three
days.
Rex Jarrett was our Master of Ceremonies for the entire show,
always present with his portable PA system announcing events,
conducting interviews, enticing exhibitors to take the microphone
and tell the crowd about their particular exhibit, and in general,
making the show GO. For all your efforts, ‘Thanks,
Rex!’
In addition to being our MC, Rex led the opening
event-outstanding live Bluegrass music by Rex Jarrett and the
Bluegrass Corn pickers. These guys can really draw a crowd! Our
display area fills very quickly when the band begins, and the
entire area takes on a festive air!
The band was followed by an oats threshing demonstration, using
a 1926 Belleville separator powered by a 1907 Avery steam traction
engine. Both these behemoths are crowd favorites, being very large
and impressive to see in action. The separator is owned by Harvey
Nelson of Hygiene, Colorado and the Avery belongs to the DeBacker
family of Boulder, Colorado.
Immediately following the oats threshing, the crew switched from
thresher to stationary hay press, and demonstrated early 20th
century ‘leading edge technology’ in baling. The oat straw
generated by the threshing demonstration was baled using a 1909
Missouri hay press powered by a portable steam engine a very nice
looking 1921 Green Fuel Economizer owned by Stuart Anderson of
Boulder, Colorado. John and Sue Garnand of Longmont, Colorado have
constructed a very nice wagon-mounted graphic display representing
all the various stages of the processing of oats-from the planting
and growth stages through the final packaging of the finished
products for human consumption. At the conclusion of the threshing
and baling, Rex turned the microphone over to John, who then
explained step by step the modern day processing procedure to the
spectators. An ironic side note of this multi-stage process of
preparing oats for consumption, John says, is that, ‘By the
time all the steaming, rolling, and bleaching has been completed,
it is necessary to ‘vitamin fortify’ the finished product,
as all the natural nutrients having been processed out.’
That’s progress. Each day after lunch break, we held our
Antique Tractor Parade. The parade seems to be another crowd
favorite, and is certainly a favorite of all the owners of these
machines. It really created a spectacle to have 30 or 40 or more of
these old machines chuffing and popping their way around a parade
route smaller than a football field. A very enjoyable sight to see,
and a good time was had by exhibitors and spectators alike.
The remainder of each afternoon was filled with more of the same
activities, with more attention being given to the stationary
engines and the equipment being powered by them, such as washing
machines, corn shellers, corn grinders, cement mixers, water pumps,
ice cream makers, light plants, and who knows what all. It seems we
had at least one each of the above mentioned items. Some of these
exhibitors are the real mainstays of our show, faithfully appearing
with us each year, providing interesting as well as informative
exhibits and demonstrations for the spectators. To name just a few
of these faithful exhibitors:
The Jack Guerrie family each year displays miscellaneous
home-related stationary engine powered devices (and provide
spectators with freshly churned ice cream using a factory made
attachment for an old Maytag washing machine).
Slim, Ron, and Levon Sherer show up each year with a remarkable
display of just about anything you can imagine. Besides a number of
stationary engines, they bring antique locks, handcuffs, corn
shellers, cherry stoners, rope-makers, etc. Ron took time out from
running his engines to give the folks a demonstration of rope
making.
Jim and Bill Stengel, in addition to being tractor exhibitors,
are the owners of a very impressive 25 HP Witte stationary engine.
They acquired this beauty from a mine in Gold Hill, Colorado about
1985, and restored it to like new condition. It attracts quite a
crowd when they fire it up!
Bill Perleberg of Golden, Colorado again brought his fascinating
hot air engines-a Rider Ericsson of. 1888 vintage, a Fanning Mfg.
Company engine from 1900, and a Bremen Caloric engine made in
1910.
Of course there are many others, but space does not permit a
personal mention of each.
Out of state exhibitors were present, too. The ‘Cowboy
State’ was well represented with exhibits from Cheyenne,
Laramie, Riverton, and Hartville, Wyoming.
There were also new, first-time exhibitors. Gene Nettesheim from
Boulder, Colorado brought a beautifully machined scale model
Economy engine.
Another beautiful machine came from Fort Lupton, Colorado-a
newly restored 1922 International 8-16 tractor owned and displayed
by Jerry and Donna Browne. This machine is a real beauty and most
of us had never seen one of these tractors before, so we really
were glad to have them join us.
Speaking of never having seen a certain tractor before, we also
had a ‘mystery tractor’ contest. One of our exhibitors had
acquired an unrestored old relic done up in the ever-popular rust
color so common to these old machines. This machine is an unusual
one in appearance, and even the new owner did not know what it was
before buying it. This led us to think we should have a contest to
see if anyone could identify it. We offered a ‘valuable
prize’ to the first person who could identify this tractor, and
believe it or not, there were several people among both exhibitors
and spectators, who came up with the right answer. Some of the
INCORRECT guesses were: Case model CC, Wallis Cub, Theiman,
Challenger, 1909 Heinz 57, Silver Streak, the Tractor From Hell,
Samson, etc. The CORRECT answer is: Rumely tricycle model DoAll-and
the prize was won by handsome Bill Walters of Broomfield, Colorado.
Congratulations, Bill!
We exhibitors had a lot of fun, but of course it would not have
been a show at all without all the spectators, so here’s a
special THANKS to all our spectators. Let’s do it again next
year.
Also, we would like to extend an invitation to you readers of
Gas Engine Magazine-come join us next year. Bring your favorite
toys, be they large or small. Or, if you can’t haul your toys
this far, jump in the car and come just as a spectator. We would
love to have you join us!
For information about the Yesteryear Farm & Home Show,
contact our show superintendents: Harvey and Charlotte Nelson, 7607
Hygiene Rd., Hygiene, Colorado 80533, 303-776-5171, or Dick and Dee
Kounovsky, 6220 Galatia Rd., Longmont, Colorado 80501,
303-678-7820.