2023 DATE: August 3-6, 2023
This post documents my experience on August 7, 2011.
In 1971, while preparing for Bluffton’s Mountaineer Days Festival, some men were asked to bring some antique machinery and do wheat threshing demonstrations. Such was the enjoyment and interest of many that the Northwest Ohio Antique Machinery Association was born.
And, by the next year, so was the Northwest Ohio Antique Machinery Show.
Celebrating its 40th year this year, the festival has since moved to the Hancock County Fairgrounds (Findlay)…
…where you can fit quite a few tractors!
But before marveling over the images I took, allow me to explain how I fell upon this mechanical wonderment.
I first walked through the fairgrounds’ main entrance with a bit of hesitation…
…because I could only see one big flea market.
Trailers and booths were positioned along street paths…
…and on the lawn…
…and I became scared that the “antique machinery” was only connected with only what they were selling.
But, as I continued…
…passed fairground buildings…
…which were filled with other knick-knacks and crafts…
…the signs of a festival were upon me.
One vendor even used an antique machine!
It was beyond this front area where the antique machines waited…
…either laid out on the open field…
…given some form of cover…
…or positioned in rows like a machinery army.
The show area was huge…
…so huge that many people drove around on golf carts and tractors.
But, even though there were quite a few machines on display in this area, they seemed rather scattered about. Eventually, I talked to two older gentlemen who had a display of their own and they explained that many left early due to the previous day’s rain…
…which, after seeing the nearby swelling river, seemed to have been plentiful.
But, if I wanted to see machines…
…all I had to do was cross this bridge…
…and find my way to the stadium field.
With a focus on John Deere machinery this year….
…the green and yellow repeated itself down uniformed lines.
Some machines shined under the sun…
…while others proudly displayed their age.
And beyond that section, any earlier fears I had about seeing machines quickly faded as I saw…
…machine…
…after machine…
…after machine.