THE LONG HUNT

By Staff
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Rt. 2, Box 125, Camden, West Virginia 26338

When I finished high school in 1957, my brother bought an
International 300 utility tractor with a front bucket and backhoe
on it. The backhoe was a Henry with a cable swing.

He wanted me to be his operator, so I agreed to it. I worked the
300 and it worked me. Five or six days later, I got to the point I
could dig a ditch and use the front bucket.

A few years later he bought a new yellow Gravely walk-behind
with a backhoe on it. This was in the late 1960s. It was a lot of
fun to run and saved a lot of manual labor. On level ground it
worked fine. On rough ground it was on its side more than on its
wheels. I like old antique iron, tractors, engines and the like.
This Gravely was traded off and got away. I have no idea where it
went, so I started looking for one.

This year I went to the 1998 Tiger Tractor Show in Burlington,
West Virginia. On my way home, in Randolph County, I happened to
see one in a backyard on a trailer. By the time I got stopped, I
was down the road a quarter of a mile. I turned around and went
back to the driveway. The owner came out to greet me.

This Gravely is a red one and has a Terramite #1 backhoe on it
with a 16 inch bucket. The tractor is a 1975 model, 7.6 engine with
electric start. The owner said he might sell it after he finished
digging a water line to his house. I checked with him every two
weeks and on the fourth week he said he would sell it. On November
14, 1998, the hunt came to a happy end some thirty years later.

Never give up on finding a prize toy. It will show up
sometime–somewhere.

I also operated another odd backhoe loader in the late 1960s,
the Belmar tractor. It had a Ford motor and a Select O Speed
transmission. It had the same size tires and wheels on both front
and rear. It was built solid and steered like a dozer with two
levers. The rubber tires did not last long.

If anyone has any information on the Gravely backhoe or the
Belmar, please contact me. I would like to know how many are out
there. I am still a backhoe operator part-time.

  • Published on Mar 1, 1999
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