One by one, the roar of vintage tractors rose into a Saturday morning cacophony as the restored marvels took to the road once more with the Humboldt Vintage Club’s Tractor Run.
The familiar forest green of John Deeres, the red of IH and Masseys, the orange of the Minneapolis Moline contingent, and even the Ford blue formed a veritable rainbow as the parade chugged out the gate. The run headed onto the backroads west of Humboldt and back to the Gas Can Cafe at Discovery Ford for a lunch break before heading back to the Vintage Club south of Humboldt.
Like a good car run, the tractors were shining and roaring for the road, along with their driver/owners, says organizer Wes Crone.
“The whole idea behind it is to let guys put a lot of time and effort into these tractors to make them look like they did the day they came out of the factory - let them show off a little bit and just enjoy them getting them out on the road. Stretch their legs out a little bit and get them running good and hot.”
It’s one thing to come out to the vintage site or head to an agricultural museum and see these machines inert in a display line up. But seeing them on the road and rolling back to their glory days brings to life a bit of western agricultural history.
“That's the whole idea. Like I said, to walk around them and just see them sitting still in the building is one thing, but to actually see them moving at a decent speed down the road in a big group and a nice long parade is going to be a very nice thing for people to see. We're hoping to do this maybe every year and maybe even twice a year if we can.”
The run has been a bit of a low-key operation for the last couple of years, but now with more tractors joining in, and another generation of operators, Wes and the group are happy to see interest grow and more spectators showing up.
“It's part of our agricultural heritage, absolutely,” Crone says. “Our average age is going to definitely be up there. There's no getting around it. But we have guys that are 50 and in their mid 50s that are driving. And that's just kind of going to be what we need to have happen to keep it going.”
For those who couldn’t make it out to the annual run, enjoy a gallery of photos. Next up is the vintage clubs Auto Show and Shine slated for Sunday, June 8 at the Vintage Club just south of Humboldt.