R. R. #4, Box 101 Montevideo, MN 56265
Greetings from the ‘Land of 10,000 Frozen Lakes’! The
high temperature today was 18 degrees below zero. When it gets this
cold thoughts turn towards the warm days of summer and that’s
what mine are doing! I belong to a fine organization called the the
Minnesota Valley Antique Farm Power and Machinery Association of
Montevideo, Minnesota. For the past four years we have held a
threshing show at the Denny Kurtzbein farm which is just a few
miles east of Montevideo. Our first show was a small one, with
twenty gas tractors, fifteen gas engines, and one steam engine on
display. Since then our show has grown steadily in both the number
of exhibits and the number of spectators.
At our 1984 show the tractor line had increased to 85 antique
tractors, many of which had been beautifully restored. There were
four Hubers on display, with two of them (a 21-39 and a 40-62)
painted and pinstriped with the original colors. Prairie Gold Rush
fever hit our show this year as fourteen Minneapolis-Molines
(including some rare ones like a UDLX and an R-CAB), three Twin
Cities, and a 17-30 Crossmount Minneapolis were shown. Over twenty
JD’s, eighteen IH’s, fifteen or so AC’s, and several
other makes (Case, Oliver, Hart-Parr, etc.) were also at the
show.
There are two restored Case engines that we are very proud to
have at our show. They are a 1916 65 HP Case steam engine and a
1917 20-40 Case gas engine. These are the engines that have handled
the threshing, and this year the steam engine will do some plowing
with an eight-bottom gang plow.
One of the goals of our club is to show how all the old
machinery worked, and as a result there are many demonstrations
going on throughout the show. Along with threshing, some of the
other activities are: lumber sawing, rock crushing (very noisy!),
baling with a hay press, wood planing, shingle mill, grain binding
and shocking, corn shelling, corn shredding, plowing, and road
building. We also have a fine display of working gas engines in our
‘Gas Engine Alley’. The gas engines operate feed mills,
water pumps, grain elevators, and other small items.
There is plenty of food and entertainment during all three days
of the show. A flea market is on the grounds for prospective
bargain hunters and there is a parade of tractors every day. New
for this year will be an antique tractor pull held on Friday
evening. Saturday night there is a dance for those who enjoy good
music and good dancing. As can be seen there are a lot of
activities going on at our show.
This year our show will be held (as long as the snow and ice
melts) on August 16, 17, and 18, 1985 at the Denny Kurtzbein farm
(three miles east of Montevideo on Hwy. 7 and two miles north on
county road 7). This year’s show promises to be bigger and
better than ever, so if any readers are in the area of West-Central
Minnesota during the third weekend of August you are more than
welcome to stop by and re-live ‘the good old days’ with the
Minnesota Valley Antique Farm Power and Machinery Association. My
hot chocolate just froze over so I’d better go put another log
on the fire and chip the ice off the thermostat. So long for
now!
