Tractor show returns with warm weather

While the leaves dropped from the trees at Forest Park with the onset of autumn, a few tractors gave them something to aspire to.

The reds, yellows, oranges, greens and grays of farm machinery in various stages of use filled the park Friday through Sunday during the 15th annual Power of the Past Antique Engine & Tractor Show.

Tractors of all makes and models took center stage. Some bore the shiny glean of freshly polished paint, and others wore the weathered coat of many years of labor.

As if their bright fall colors weren’t enough, each day at 1 p.m. the collective hum of their engines usually reserved for turning soil rang as they circled the park during the Parade of Power.

To see more photos , go to http://ottawaherald.mycapture.com/mycapture/index.asp

For one 4-year-old Ottawa girl, nothing beat having the steering wheel of a Massey-Harris 1957 90 Special self-propelled combine in her hands.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Kaity Ferguson said.

“She drove around all three days. She was the driver,” Chris Ferguson, her father, said.

Collecting Massey-Harris tractors and equipment became something of hobby after his great-grandfather passed away in 1991.

“Great-granddad always farmed with Massey-Harris,” he said.

Ferguson bought the combine his daughter drove with his steadying hand and his wife, Nycole, riding shotgun, 10 years ago from his uncle.

Although he didn’t know exactly how large his collection was, it seems to grow.

“We’ve got sheds full,” he said.

The Fergusons weren’t the only ones who made it to the park.

Great weather helped bring a large crowd to the three-day event, Richard Mullins, Power of the Past president, said.

“We had a record Friday and Saturday was great. We had so many people we couldn’t turn without bumping into someone,” Mullins said.

Like past years, all Franklin County fifth-grade students were invited and received a free ice cream cone and got to see the apple cider press in action and some were even able to turn the crank, he said.

The range of visitors was shown in the prize drawings. Winners came from three states.

Mike Brewster, Muskogee, Okla., won the 16-scale tractor and Jo Smith, Drexel, Mo., won the kids pedal tractor.

The grand prize, a 1948 Massey Model 30 restored tractor, was won by Jeff Shephard, Yates Center.