Lansford Threshing Show to be held this weekend
By DAN FELDNER, Staff Writer dfeldner@minotdailynews.comArticle Photos
LANSFORD - The 38th Annual Lansford Threshing Show is being held Saturday and Sunday, and there promises to be plenty to do for young and old alike.
Glen Carlson has been involved with the Lansford Threshers & Historical Association, which holds the threshing show, since the very beginning 38 years ago. He's held just about every position on the association's board at one time or another and now is content to let others take the lead.
"Well, I'm just a flunky," Carlson said. "I've been through all the offices and I'm just a helper (now)."
While he has only nine years of experience compared to Carlson's 38, Chris Simmons is also a past president of the association and now helps out with the show by doing the announcing and helping with advertising.
Although both men have been involved in the threshing show for a number of years, they still look forward to it year after year. One of the events they are both anticipating is the tractor trek on Saturday. A parade of 30 or more classic tractors will run from Lansford north to Mohall at 8:30 a.m., then take a break for people to look at the machines. They will then drive back to Lansford at 12:30 p.m. and park on the threshing grounds so the crowd at the threshing show can see the tractors while the drivers have lunch.
This format will give people in both locations a chance to see some of those old tractors up close and also makes the logistics of loading and unloading the tractors on the trailers easier for the drivers.
Simmons said the tractor trek used to start north of Minot and then go to Lansford, where it would end. This meant drivers either had to drop off their tractors at the starting point and then drive the trailers up to Lansford, or leave the trailers and drive the tractors back after the show.
"(The new format) makes it more convenient," Simmons said.
The following day there will be a field parade and car show at 1 p.m. While some of the same tractors from the trek will be in this event, it will also showcase many old-time cars. Carlson has a pair of cars from 1926 and 1929 he'll be firing up, as well as several old tractors.
The price of gas will no doubt play a part in how many cars and tractors show up to participate in the trek and parade, but there is another concern when it comes to holding parades with all this old machinery.
"The trouble is to find someone to drive them," Carlson said. "That's always my trouble."
It's not a lack of willing drivers that is the problem, but a lack of knowledgeable drivers. Cars and tractors from the 1920s are very different from the modern versions of today. Carlson says he has to be confident that a driver knows what he or she is doing before he'll let them get behind the wheel of some of these antiques, which is probably why there haven't been any accidents up to now.
"Some of them old tractors and stuff, why, you just don't let anybody drive them," Carlson said. "You've got a hand clutch or a foot clutch or whatever. You'd better know what you're doing."
It obviously wouldn't be a threshing show without any threshing, and wheat and corn will be threshed both days - 2 p.m. on Saturday and 3 p.m. on Sunday. And while some children might not be as fascinated by the beauty of the old machinery in the parades or the threshing displays, the event the threshing leads into is always a hit.
At 4 p.m. on Sunday the straw from both threshing displays will be gathered and split into two piles for the children's straw pile coin hunt. Nickels and quarters are then thrown into the piles, the children are separated into two different age groups, and they are let loose.
"We put money in the pile and they go digging around in it, and it's just like a free-for-all," Simmons said.
While combining kids, money, and a word like "free-for-all" might seem like a disaster waiting to happen, Simmons and Carlson say there has never been a problem with kids getting overly aggressive before, and despite the mess afterwards, it's all just good, clean fun.
"They really enjoy that, they look forward to it. They're all straw and chaff when they get out of it, but they enjoy it," Carlson said with a laugh.
Another event aimed squarely at the children is the kids' tractor pull at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Once again, the kids are separated by age and try to pull a weighted sled as far as they can with a pedal-powered tractor. Prizes are given away and this event is always popular with both young and old.
Other events include church services and breakfast on both days, and a multitude of displays will be available throughout the show. These include an operating blacksmith, stationary engines, log cabin, claim shack, school, post office, church, museum and Soo Line depot. Concessions will also be available in the depot. An ice cream social will wind down the threshing show on Sunday after the children's straw pile coin hunt.
Along with all this, a toy show will be held in the Helming Building from noon to 5 p.m. both days. This building, named after longtime association member Lynn Helming, also houses a 187th scale model of Lansford from 1919 that was built by Helming. Comprised of 160 buildings, the entire model took about 3,500 hours to complete over a 15 year stretch, and each building took up to 20 hours to hand craft.
Buttons to attend the threshing show cost $5 and are good for both days, and children under 12 get in free. The button this year is dedicated to the memory of Don Grilley, a long-time member of the association who died in 2006. Dedicating the buttons to past members has become increasingly popular in the last few years, due in no small part to the fact that the members aren't getting any younger.
"It's been popular the last few years. Most of us are getting older. ... Well I'm 84. I suppose I might not last too long, either," Carlson said with a laugh.
Seeing all the tractors and visiting with old friends are both things Simmons enjoys, but seeing the younger generations at the show is one of the things he enjoys most. After all, if young people don't attend the show, sooner or later there won't be anyone left who will.
"Seeing young folks, that's the thing for me I like to see come out. The younger folks, you get them interested, and you get the blood start going," Simmons said.
