Friday, July 5, 2024

Weekend Steam: Christine North Dakota, Threshing And Steam Engines

 An old Super Eight film was found at a threshing show in North Dakota, and it is a great look into the not so distant past. Merle spotted it, and we thank him profusely! I will post information from the YouTube post under the video.

This 8mm film reel was found in a cabinet at the LRPTA (Dalton, MN) threshing show., Tim Larson

"Once owned by the late Daniel Anderson. This 35hp Buffalo Pitts engine was originally bought new in 1905 by the late Jacob Johnson of Christine, ND. who used the engine for custom threshing for some 28 years. "

"Carl and Joseph Anderson bought the engine in 1938, and it was still in the family and owned by Carl’s son Daniel Anderson until 2014 when it was sold by auction. Except for one year, from 1939 until the spring of 1967 the Andersons used their 1905 Buffalo Pitts engine to thresh grain. The unique part is Andersons always stacked-threshed and always threshed with steam on their farm for 87 years, from 1880 to 1967. Think of this, the Rollag Steam Show had been operating some 12 to 13 years when Andersons quit threshing. During the years the Andersons threshed with their 1905 35hp Buffalo Pitts. They used mainly straw for fuel in firing the engine. Other fuels used have been wood with rubber tires, wood only, but no coal.  From 2005 till 2014, it was the only engine fired by straw on the Rollag Showground’s. This 1905 35hp Buffalo Pitts sat idle from 1967 until 1995 when repairs were done before heading for Steamer Hill at Rollag. In 2015, this engine and rebuilt straw and water tender (restored by Daniel and Gerry Stange), was up for auction and was bought by Jered Ruble of Forrest City, IA. The engine stayed on the WMSTR show grounds for another 2 years, then moved to Iowa. This information provided was from excerpts of the article about this 1905 35hp Buffalo Pitts Steam Engine written by Richard Birklid in the 1995 WMSTR Show book and information given from Karl Stange."

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