Midwest Old Threshers Number 70!

The first Midwest Old Settlers and Threshers show was in 1950.  The eight founders showed fifteen steam engines and eight threshers at McMillan Park in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and they attracted 10,000 attendees.  Old Threshers has always offered good family entertainment with no alcohol served on the grounds and no carnival attractions.  They are still going strong at 70, and this year's show will start the Thursday before Labor Day as it has for years.

In 1979 when Old Threshers was turning thirty, Dana Close Jennings published a great paperback book about the show, full of photos he had taken there.  I'm glad I got a copy forty years ago, because it must be pretty scarce today.  Here are a few pictures from Mr. Jenning's book.

This Aultman-Taylor engine belonged to Milo Mathews.  He restored it in 1946, and again in 1977.

Threshing with the Jumbo engine.  Threshing with steam and with horse power is still demonstrated every day at Old Threshers.

Here is Stan Mathews, the driving force behind the establishment of the Midwest Central Railroad, grinding on a locomotive frame.  Stan brought engines 2 and 6 in the early Sixties, and Number 9 in 1966.  Number 9 has been on loan for several years to the Georgetown Loop, but it has returned to Mt. Pleasant this year.

Here is Engine Number 2, which was retired many years ago for boiler problems, but it will be up and running again one of these days.  If you are able, get yourself over to Mt. Pleasant for Labor Day Weekend.  They always have some new old stuff to see, plus a bunch of the same old same old, which we never tire of watching.