Down on the farm

Take a step back in time Sept. 12-14 at the 47th annual Working Farm Show, sponsored by the Atkinson Antique Engine and Tractor Association. (BCR file photo)

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ATKINSON — Nostalgic for the good old days?

Return to the days of yesteryear next weekend at the 47th annual Working Farm Show, sponsored by the Atkinson Antique Engine and Tractor Association.

The association is an organization dedicated to preserving the historic value of antique power-driven farm equipment from early horse-drawn plows to gasoline and steam tractors to equipment from the 1950s. To keep the story of these machines alive, association members plant corn, soybeans, oats and grass for hay on their show site. The highlight of the year arrives with the annual fall show when the crops are harvested using farming technology from the 19th and early-20th century.

The show is always held the second weekend after Labor Day, so this year’s show will be held Friday through Sept. 14.

The Association would like more people to join their visit to the past.

“We’re the best-kept secret in Henry County,” said Roger Mixer, Association member. “I’ve talked with people 10 miles away and they say, ‘I’ve never heard of you.’”

This year’s tractor show features J.I. Case tractors and Root & VanDervoort gas engines, and there will be a wide variety of Case tractors, crawlers, garden equipment, half-tracks and more.

There will also be local FFA chapter projects, tractor rides and horse-drawn rides, food stands — including homemade ice cream, a flea market, live music, and a variety of speakers. The Geneseo Park District Quilters will demonstrate hand quilting and hand piecing, and Master Gardener Craig Hignight will share gardening tips at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Sept. 14.

As always, the show includes live demonstrations of farming activities just as they were done in the past, and there will be displays of antique tractors and equipment, hit-miss engines, lawn and garden tractors and attachments, and working farm horses.

There are also activities for youth of all ages, including riding a miniature train, shelling corn with a hand corn sheller, playing with toy tractors and trucks in a shell corn pile, looking for candy in shell corn, driving a full size tractor, cultivating rows of pop cans and much more.

Even with all that, Mixer said some people balk at the $5 admission, but he said that price is good for all three days.

In addition to the great food, Mixer said the Atkinson Farm Show has one unbeatable attraction — no Porta-Potties.

“We have flush restrooms, and that’s a big deal for tractor and farm shows,” Mixer said with a laugh.

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