Treasurer, 510 N. 21st Street, Escanaba, MI 49829
Those of us who belong to the U.P. Steam and Gas Engine
Association believe our second annual show was a great success
anyway you look at it – equipment, turnout, or financially.
Steam equipment included Skip Dufour’s Minneapolis steam
traction engine (did you ever try to haul a 10′ wide engine on
an 8′ wide lowboy?), his Port Huron steam traction engine, and
Takalo’s Port Huron portable. The portable operated the
club’s 1869 sawmill while the traction engines took turns
powering the threshing machines.
Among the more than 40 tractors present at the show were
Skips’s 12-25 Minneapolis crossmount and my 10-20 Titan and
Hart Parr 30. (Remember Skip, pulling back on the clutch lever on
the Hart Parr 30 does not stop it!) Al
Strahl’s Farmall Regular looked so nice I almost wish I
hadn’t sold it to him.
Some of the gas engines of the more than 75 present included the
15 HP Badger sideshaft donated to the club by John Kay of Rapid
River, Michigan and my 12 HP Lawson on factory cart. The smallest
engine of the open crank type was my ? – ? HP Ironwood which was
not for sale.
Other nice gas engines were exhibited by Al Dill who has a great
Sears Row Boat motor and by Leonard Forath who had a nice
Worthington, among others.
We were afraid of rain as it had rained most of August (and
later most of September) but Praise the Lord it didn’t! Over
the three day weekend we had about 3500 people come to see the
show.
Many came from quite a distance to display items or to see the
show. Those who came were impressed by the threshing and sawmill as
well as by Terry Alexander’s shingle mill zipping out all those
shingles. All the members are impressed by the fact that Terry
still has all his fingers.
Just pure fun was the tractor slow race which had 7 entries.
Even the 10-20 Titan and Minneapolis crossmount were no match for
my 12 year old daughter, Sharon, driving her 1936 John Deere B. As
Skip said, ‘there ought to be a rule against entering that
thing.’
In the money department we were able to pay all the bills and
have a little left, so what more could we want.
Hope to see more of you this year, Labor Day weekend, at the
U.P. State Fairgrounds here in Escanaba, ‘The best little show
anywhere.’ Watch for our ads appearing in the G.E.M. and Iron
Men Album.
