100 Years of Horsepower, fun!

At the last minute, on the last day, we made it. Keith and I headed to the 100 Years of Horsepower that is! Tom Renner, his son Jake and grandson Jonathon have an amazing collection of tractors in Belleville, Illinois. They were on display outside as well as their agricultural museum! The museum was open during the show.

The 100 Days Horsepower was much like a mini-Half Century of Progress in the southern half of Illinois. Proceeds from the show went to 4H, FFA, or ag related charities.

What did we see?

We saw a bit of everything! My favorite item of the day was the truck mounted corn sheller. This is from the American Farm Heritage Museum in Greenville, Illinois. I’m not sure if he is the owner or not, but the sign mentions the “corn cob boss as Darrell Strieker”! At the start of the day, we saw the someone tipped into the hood working on this amazing piece of machinery.

I love it when people share their history. There was an interesting tandem hitch that was built by Russell Hallock in the 1950’s. The sign said, “You could buy for $250.00, with a guarantee that you would like me, or you did not have to own me. (Many just like me were custom built for farmers.) I was used spring and fall for many years.”

Another top favorite was the Case tractor with the Avery plow. The plow sign shares that it was a “No-Man Lift plow” built in Louisville, Kentucky manufactured in 1912. How cool is that?

Plowing!

Then there was the plowing! Keith in particular loved the muscle power like the WA-14 we saw poised to plow in the field. What he loved is that you seldom see these tractors and here you could see them in action!

Static displays

Besides the tractors on display and at work, there were many other items as well. This sawmill worked seamlessly.

Another farming tool we saw was the old-fashioned tile machine! A few years ago, we had a field tiled and watched the modern version. I would have loved to see this at work!

One last thing, the food. We had hands down, the best corn on the cob ever! Keith loved the Shriner’s BBQ pork steak as well!

Look on YouTube under 100 Years of Horsepower. There are hours of video watching available! 100 Years of Horsepower was history right here in the Midwest!