From tractor enthusiasts to toy collectors who grew up on farms, the 49th annual Fall Harvest & Antique Equipment Show provided a dose of nostalgia just after opening its gates Friday morning, and the walk down memory lane continues all weekend.
Put on by the Northern Indiana Historical Power Association, the show brought in 3,000 visitors last year. A core group of about 20 volunteers makes the show happen and made room in the roundabout in front of the grain bin and the surrounding lawn for this year’s featured tractor, Oliver and Hart-Parr.
The Oliver Gang of Northern Indiana, Northwest Ohio, and Southern Michigan brought in dozens of the American tractors, mostly in the iconic Meadow Green and Clover White.
A 1934 Hart-Parr 18-27 displayed metal-studded wheels without tires.
“The old hard-core farmers said, ‘I don’t want rubber tires. They won’t pull nothin’,” said The Oliver Gang President Larry Widner. “Obviously, they did, and there was no going back.”
DeMotte resident Simon Sepkema’s time growing up on a farm between DeMotte and Rensselaer doesn’t go back quite that far. His parents farmed 40 acres with two Allis-Chalmers tractors, but he was content to admire the Olivers Friday morning with his wife Kathy. “Oliver was a good brand and a good name back then,” he recalled.
Sepkema’s family used one of its Allis-Chalmers to pick asparagus and the other for plowing and sowing. “That’s how they did it on a small farm,” he said of dabbling in a variety of crops and livestock. “They did a little bit of everything. You couldn’t afford to do just one thing.”
A quick walk away, Greg Short of Valparaiso was setting up his booth of farm toys at the flea market barn. “I never grew out of the tractor phase,” he said. “I am a farm toy tractor collector. Have been for 30 years.”
He, too, grew up on a small farm in Union Township. He said the most popular toy tractors are John Deere and International.
“Everything has its following, just like the big tractors,” Short said. “You look out there,” he said, gesturing to the pasture beyond where row upon row of tractors were parked on display, “there are probably more John Deeres. Each to their own.”
Next to him, the Northwest Indiana Woodworkers Association was having a coffeeklatch ahead of their pen turning and scroll work demonstrations on lathes set up nearby. They, too, were trading in toys.
Pine cars, along with bangle bracelets and wooden fountain pens, were for sale to raise money for their charitable work, donating the cars to the likes of the Portage Police and other organizations to give to children in need.
There were some actual children in attendance as the first day of the show is always Education Day, when area fourth graders come in to learn about antique farming methods as part of their Indiana history curriculum.
Friday morning, students from Discovery Charter School in Porter were making the rounds seeing implements in action.
“I come here a lot and see a lot of the equipment,” said fourth-grader Emilee Stanley. “My mom, she really likes being with nature.”
Her classmate Sadie Turner thought the threshing equipment hooked up to a vintage tractor was “really cool.” “I was surprised that when the tractor moved, it made the things move,” she said of the pulley system.
The show offers more than just farming implements and toys. There are shingle and saw mills on demonstration, baling machinery, sorghum cooking, farm animals, live music, the Cedar Lake Farmers Market, and a handful of food vendors offering breakfast, lunch and dinner items.
If you go
The Fall Harvest & Antique Equipment Show runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Sunset Hill Farm County Park, 775 N. Meridian Road in Valparaiso. Admission is $10 for adults; children 12 and under are free.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
