NEWS

Tractors fill grounds for vintage club's steam, engine show

Ray Mueller
Correspondent
A McCormick Deering (International Harvester) thresher from the late 1920s was put into service for spectators at the 2017 R.S. Vintage Steel show in Calumetville. With its 28-inch cylinder and 48-inch separator, it threshed winter wheat bundles loaded by Chris Stephany and Steve Crass while Eric Jurgensmeier monitored on top of the unit.

CALUMETVILLE – Exhibitors, vendors, and attendees at the R.S. Vintage Steel Club's 29th annual steam and gas engine show shared an usually warm late summer day followed by a day with a refreshing cool westerly breeze for the event on the weekend of Sept. 16-17.

A 1907 Aurora Model 2 rock crusher showed that it was in good working order during the 2017 R.S. Vintage Steel show. It is owned by John and Luke Schneider of rural Chilton. In the photo, Mike Loose watched as Bob Schneider tended to the unloading of another load of rocks.

While Massey Harris was the year's featured tractor and antique farm equipment brand name, well over 100 other tractors – many of very familiar brands and a few that are not very well known – filled a portion of the grounds on the border of Fond du Lac and Calumet counties a mile from the east shore of Lake Winnebago.

As one of the youngest exhibitors at the event, Zach Immel of rural Malone was busy at his blacksmith station making a wall hook for customer at the R.S. Vintage Steel show on Sept. 17.

Among the weekend's demonstration attractions were the threshing of shocks of winter wheat, a rock crusher, a saw mill, a shingle mill, and a blacksmith shop along with displays of toy tractors and numerous gas engines, flea markets, and an opportunity for “primitive camping.”

A somewhat unusual attraction was the 1936 Maytag washing machine and wringer owned by Heidi Knuth. It was tended at the show by her mother LuAnne Knuth of Hortonville, whose husband Gary had an adjacent display of a corn sheller, a corn grinder, and a variety of small engines

Saturday evening attendees enjoyed the entertainment provided by guitarist and vocalist Gary Cross of Waupun. An early afternoon tractorade was organized on both days.