I love the pops of color these seasonal stands add to the landscape, setting the mood for October and the fun festivities the month brings.
Pumpkins of all sizes and shapes for sale at the Little Prairie stand. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Growers gather in the pumpkins, heaping them atop wagons for ease of display and purchase.
A payment box and price list for mums and other plants at a seasonal roadside stand in Stanton. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Buying is made easy with secure drop boxes, pay on the honor system via cash, check or Venmo. I love the trust the sellers place in the buyers.
Oversized pumpkin art directs passing motorists’ attention to the Stanton pumpkin stand backed by a cornfield. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Decorative Indian corn decorates the pumpkin wagon at Stanton. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Beautiful potted mums for sale at the Stanton stand. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I love, too, the signage, art and seasonal decorations which draw customers to stop and shop for pumpkins and often other goods like squash and mums.
Knucklehead pumpkins get their own display area at the Stanton stand. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
It all feels so good and earthy and connective, this buying direct from the grower who seeds, tends, harvests, markets. Locally-grown at its most basic.
A field of sunflowers, ideal for photo ops, grows next to pumpkins and corn at the Little Prairieroadside market. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I love, too, how rural pumpkin stands pop up next to cornfields and occasionally sunflower fields. Sunflowers make me smile with their bright yellow blossoms. Sort of like thousands of smiley faces beaming happiness upon the land.
Getting in the spirit of Halloween on the Little Prairie pumpkin wagon along Highway 3. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
All these pumpkins placed for purchase prompt memories of Halloweens past. Of pulp and seeds scooped from pumpkins. Of pumpkins carved into jack-o-lanterns with toothy grins. Of jack-o-lanterns set on front steps and candles extinguished by the wind. Of pumpkins buried in drifts of snow in the Halloween blizzard of 1991 which dropped up to three feet of snow on parts of northern Minnesota and somewhat less here in southern Minnesota, but still a 20-inch storm total.
Pumpkins heap a wagon parked next to sunflower and corn fields at the Little Prairie stand along Highway 3. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Pumpkins represent more than a prop or seasonal decoration. They represent nostalgia, stories, the past, the present, the timelessness of tradition. Those are the reasons I can’t pass a pumpkin stand without feeling grateful, without remembering the childhood Halloween when I clamped a molded plastic gypsy mask onto my face or the Halloween I fingered cow eyeballs (really cold grapes) at a party in the basement of a veterinarian’s home or all the years I crafted Halloween costumes for my three kids.
Unpicked pumpkins in the Little Prairie field. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Then there’s the year I helped my father-in-law harvest pumpkins from his muddy patch in the cold and rain so he could take them to a roadside market in central Minnesota. Because of that experience, I understand the occasional challenges of getting pumpkins from vine to sale.
A cornfield backdrops the pumpkin wagon and signage at the Little Prairie pumpkin stand. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I appreciate the growers who are offering all of us the beauty of autumn, the fun and fright of Halloween, and the gratitude of Thanksgiving with each pumpkin grown, picked and placed for sale at a roadside stand.
TELL ME: What does a pumpkin represent to you? Do you buy from roadside stands or elsewhere? I’d like to hear.
Fest-goers, some in festive attire, gathered at picnic tables and under tents. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
ATTENDING OKTOBERFEST IN NEARBY DUNDAS last Saturday, I felt a sense of unity, of community, of celebration. It felt good. We were all there just to have fun. Even the kids.
Kids roll down the hillside near the main celebration tent. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I love this photo of this young boy watching the adults dance. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
On the edge of the fest grounds, a place for kids to paint pumpkins. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
From dancing to painting pumpkins, riding in a barrel train and rolling down a hillside, the youngest among the fest-goers appeared to have as much fun as the adults.
Volunteers are behind the success of Oktoberfest. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I love that organizers thought of the kids. It takes a lot of man, and woman, power to run an event like this in a town with a population of some 1,800. I’m grateful to the many volunteers who stepped up so the rest of us could come and enjoy ourselves on a lovely Saturday of clouds mixed with sun and occasional showers.
Three of the remaining contestants in the women’s mug holding contest. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
As I roamed the fest grounds, chatted with people, encouraged my husband in the mug holding contest, sang some German songs, watched enthusiastic dancers, drank beer, and shared savory and raspberry handhelds from Martha’s Eats & Treats, plus cheese curds from the Dundas Dukes baseball team, I thought, I’m having such a good time.
Biking through downtown Dundas past the car show, these kids wore festive German hats. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Umbrellas came out when a brief shower passed through. I ducked into a tent and used Randy’s jacket to protect my camera. I wasn’t expecting rain. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Even some of the youngest came dressed in German costumes. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
It’s fun to photograph events like this, too. To take in the activities, the details. To notice kids rolling in the grass, a boy splashing in a puddle, a toddler hidden by an umbrella, two kids pedaling a two-seat bike down Dundas’ main drag…
Loved all the German messages on shirts such as this wish for a good day to everyone. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
The adults are equally as interesting to watch. I loved seeing the happy faces, the conversations, the mixing of fest-goers in this small Cannon River town with the champion baseball team, several bars, a makerspace, Martha’s Eats & Treats, a paint store, Chapel Brewing, a big box store along the highway and more.
An enthusiastic emcee under the big tent. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Oktoberfest focused on celebrating German culture and heritage in music, dance, song, food, drink, dress. Whether you were German or not really didn’t matter. On this day, this gathering was mostly about having a good time, connecting, and building community among family, friends and strangers.
Raising their commemorative bier mugs at Oktoberfest in Dundas. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
BIER FLOWED.Musik pulsed. People of all ages danced and sang and visited and ate and drank, simply having a wunderbar time in the small town of Dundas. Randy and I were among the fest-goers, celebrating our first ever Oktoberfest Saturday afternoon. Why did we wait so long?
Dancing to the musik of The Bavarian Musikmeisters. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
This, for lack of a better phrase, was a whole lot of fun.
Deutsche costumes were prevalent. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Lots of hats decorated with pins. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Dancing in Deutsche costumes and street clothes. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
The mood proved jovial, festive and cheerful. Attendees really got in the spirit of the day, arriving in costume—lederhosen and dirndls and hats adorned with pins.
Chapel Brewing in Dundas served bier, cider and non-alcoholic drinks. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
An assortment of mugs and steins sit on a picnic table. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
A stash of bier kegs at the Chapel Brewing tap tent. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I arrived not quite knowing what to expect. Clearly many were seasoned in Oktoberfest, carrying their own massive steins and mugs to Chapel Brewing’sbier tap wagon. Lines formed outside the local craft brewer’s bier dispensing site.
Attendees celebrated inside and outside tents on the festival grounds in downtown Dundas. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
The Bavarian Musikmeisters perform under the big tent. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
The song leader first taught attendees how to pronounce the Deutsche words before leading them in a boisterous drinking song. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Under the big tent, crowds packed the space to overflowing. Here the 35-member Twin Cities-based band, The Bavarian Musikmesiters, performed Deutsche songs while fest-goers listened, danced and even sang in Deutsch.
Randy, left, and other contestants compete in the mug holding competition. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
When a mug holding contest was announced, Randy stepped up to join a group of guys competing to see who could hold a water-filled mug the longest. One-handed. Straight out in front, even with your shoulder. No elbow bending. Randy finished third out of eight. Not bad for the oldest among the competitors. The winner works an office job and lifts 15-pound hand weights at work. But the women, competing with each other at the same time, outlasted the men. Winners kept their mugs and got a free bier.
One of the largest and most detailed bier steins I saw at Oktoberfest. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Many times people lifted their bier-filled mugs, steins and plastic cups in Prost! Cheers.
Vendors set up shop along the street next to the Oktoberfest grounds. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
A barrel train barrels along the sidewalk, returning from Memorial Park to the fest site. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
Little Prairie United Methodist Church served up Deutsche foods and more. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
There was lots to cheer about here from entertainment to food and drink, a craft fair, a collector’s car and motorcycle show, and activities for kids.
A fest-goer carries his stein to the bier wagon. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I took it all in, celebrating my Deutsche heritage, trying to remember the Deutsch I learned in high school and then in college. I’ve forgotten most of the Mother tongue. No one much cared. Rather, the focus was on fun, Deutsche style fun. Prost!
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NOTE: Please check back for more photos from Dundas’ Oktoberfest.
Wagons heaped with harvested oats provide an interesting backdrop for the approaching horse-drawn wagon at the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Fall Show. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
PHOTOS TELL STORIES, record moments in time, preserve memories, prompt emotional reactions, convey messages and more.
The first picture I took at the farm show, just outside the entry gate. I love the creativity and humor in this scene. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
My venture into photography began when I studied journalism in college with a photography class as part of the degree requirement. This was back in the day of film and darkrooms. Chemicals, water baths and contact sheets were part of a long process to get from photo snapped to photo printed.
I love capturing moments like this of someone so focused on a task that they are unaware of my presence. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
During my twenties working as a small town newspaper reporter, I honed the craft of photography. I juggled interviews and note taking with shooting photos. Today’s reporters do the same unless they are employed by a metro newspaper with a staff photographer.
I opted to zoom in on this mammoth steam engine, focusing on the steam and wheels, emphasizing the power of this long ago agricultural work horse. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
After a while, I got comfortable with the camera, confident in my abilities to shoot images to accompany hard news, features and other stories. Practice may not make perfect, but it certainly builds skills.
I was sitting on the ground underneath a tree eating lunch when I aimed my camera lens up and took this photo of a guy driving this 1955 Oliver Super 66.The perspective makes this photo. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
I’ve grown to love photography through the years, especially after acquiring a digital camera while freelancing for a Minnesota magazine. Digital unleashed the photo creative in me. I no longer had to worry about the cost of film or running out of film. So I took a lot more photos, tried new perspectives, began to see the world through an artistic lens. More often than not, I find myself thinking, oh, that would make a good photo.
I didn’t even realize I’d captured this joyful moment until I uploaded my photos to the computer. I’d been firing off shots of the kids’ pedal tractor pull and this one, among all, is my favorite. It shows a moment of pure happiness. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
But vision issues are now affecting and limiting my photography. My eyes are misaligned, meaning my brain works hard (even with prism-heavy prescription eyeglasses) to see. It’s exhausting. I do my best. Yet it’s challenging sometimes to tell if an image is sharp. I can feel the strain on my eyes when I use my camera for an extended time and when I process images on my computer.
I stood in the doorway of the dining room to photograph these women visiting in the kitchen of the 1912 farmhouse where homemade cookies awaited guests. I like how the doorframe frames this photo, as if the viewer is eavesdropping on a private conversation. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Still, I persist. Until I either have another bilateral strabismus eye surgery or try a different (and expensive) prescription, this is the way it is. At least I can see. I manage. I can still create with my 35mm Canon EOS 60D.
During the tractor parade, I noticed these sweet kids riding in a wagon behind an old corn picker mounted on a John Deere tractor. I like the perspective and that part of the corn picker shows in the upper left corner of this photo. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Last Saturday I did the longest photo shoot I’ve done in several years. I took hundreds of images during six hours at the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Fall Show. It’s a fun event to document with so much happening and so many people attending. I don’t want to stop doing what I love.
This close-up image of corn shelling shows exactly what I had hoped: the dust. I sometimes zoom in to focus on a smaller part of the broader picture. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
My biggest challenges in covering the event came in dodging golf carts that swarmed the grounds and in avoiding dust from some of the farming demonstrations. Cameras and dirt are not friends. I also always had to be cognizant of unintentional photo bombing by people and those pesky (but necessary for some to get around) golf carts.
This photo shows off not only tractors, but human connection as the driver waves to the crowd during the tractor parade. I love this moment of humanity when nothing else matters. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
I’ve already shared many show photos with you in an overall post about the event and in a second focusing on art. Today I bring you a hodge-podge of more favorites, with an explanation in the captions of why I like the images. Enjoy!
Vintage posters displayed from the early years of the current Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Fall Show, before the name and location changed. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
ART EXISTS EVERYWHERE, even at a farm-themed event. My photos from the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Fall Show last Saturday in rural Dundas prove that. As a creative, I view life through an artistic lens. So I’m naturally drawn to photograph items that others may not necessarily see as art.
I see tractor emblems, including this one on a vintage Ford, as works of art. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
In this photo essay, you’ll view a sampling of the “art” I discovered. I found art on vintage tractors, on clothing, at the flea market, especially at the flea market, and beyond.
Two brass sculptures offered by a vendor. They are not solid brass, so not as heavy as they appear. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Let’s start there, among market vendors selling a variety of goods ranging from toy tractors to glassware to home décor and everything in between. The art that drew my deepest interest—two massive brass sculptures of African men—sat on a flatbed trailer. They were nothing short of spectacular. Such grace. Such power in their muscular arms and legs. Truly, truly stunning. Seller Daniel Bell of Faribault, who calls himself a picker, found the matching pair in Iowa. The sculptures once supported tabletops, now missing. He’s priced each at $575. I can connect you with Dan if you’re interested.
Vintage tray art from the 1950s. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Almost as interesting, and certainly thought-provoking in 2025, is a 1950s image of children dressed in western attire and brandishing pistols. When I reflect on that scene printed on a tray, I remember how I, too, owned a toy cap gun and played “Cowboys and Indians.” That all seems so terribly wrong now when viewing this as an adult in a world riddled by gun violence. I’m thankful for changed attitudes and perspectives about our Indigenous Peoples and about toy guns.
A Jolly Green Giant themed plastic mug. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
I spotted art on a plastic coffee mug from Minnesota Valley Canning Company featuring the Green Giant brand of GREAT BIG TENDER PEAS. The back side of the mug is imprinted with the story of the Jolly Green Giant. I should have purchased the cup, which belonged to the father of the flea market vendor. He worked at the canning company in Le Sueur until its 1995 closure. This mug is more than a mug. It’s a collectible piece of regional literary and visual art.
The artsy cover of the 1984 Northfield Arts Guild commemorative cookbook. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
And then I found art on the cover and inside the Northfield Arts Guild’s 25th anniversary cookbook from 1984. Not unexpected, it features the art of rural Northfielder Fred Somers, whose work I admire.
A damaged work of art. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
At another vendor, I spotted a bullet-riddled cow weather vane, a form of functional rural art. And apparently a shooting target, too. I saw a horse weather vane inside a showgrounds building.
Pop art in my eyes. The vendor saw the lips as otherwise, as a bill holder. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
And then there were the duck decoys, the red plastic lips and the jar full of colored plastic clothespins, all viewed as art by me.
The leather goods vendor paints while manning his stand. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
I even saw a vendor painting, freshening up the words “C’MON MAN!” on his van. He was selling mostly leather belts, an inventory purchased when a leather goods shop closed.
Show buttons on a straw hat and even a keychain are forms of art. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Creative arts of yesteryear shown inside the old farmhouse. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Elsewhere around the showgrounds, art exists also. I discovered it on commemorative buttons, stickers and signs. Inside the 1912 farmhouse a vintage sewing machine and fabric scraps highlighted the creative arts.
Brand loyalty in fashion. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
I even found fashion art—in a John Deere/Hawaiian shirt worn by a John Deere tractor owner.
Among the art displayed inside the old Waterford School and then community center. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Art (prints and photos) graces a wall of the Waterford Community Center, once a one-room school, moved onto the Steam & Gas Engines showgrounds and opened to the public this year.
The culinary arts in pies crafted by the Amish. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
And then there are the culinary arts as perfected by an Amish family selling handheld fruit pastries and pies plus homemade ice cream crafted on-site as attendees watched. They are new-to-the-show vendors. The peach pastry and ice cream, oh, my, so delicious. They sold out of pies and handhelds.
I see this collage of farm show stickers as art. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
This may be a show themed to farming of yesteryear. But, as I discovered, art also abounds. Sometimes you just have to look through an artistic lens to see it.
Hundreds of tractors in all makes and models lined the showgrounds. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
SIX HOURS OF ENDLESS WALKING, many conversations, one shared handheld peach pastry, a small taco, several bites of a burger and fries, one molasses cookie, a couple swallows of soda, one shared dish of Amish-made ice cream and hundreds of photos later, I left the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Fall Show on August 30 exhausted. In a good way.
Plowing with horses. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
There were lots of steam engines at this year’s show. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Tractors provide the power to shell corn. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
This event held at the showgrounds in rural Dundas over Labor Day weekend saw ideal weather and record crowds during the 50th anniversary celebration focused on “preserving a bit of yesterday for tomorrow.” That’s exactly what this organization accomplishes. From horse power to steam power to gas power, the early days and evolution of farming are on display in living history demonstrations. Rows and rows of vintage tractors and other agricultural equipment and on-site old buildings also showcase history.
This could be one of my brothers back in the day driving tractor. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
I love everything about this show as it takes me back to my rural roots, reconnects me with the land and reminds me of the importance farming had, and still has, in Minnesota.
Two generations work at shelling corn, one by machine, the other by hand. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Horse-drawn wagon rides by Tom Duban, rural Faribault, transport attendees around the showgrounds. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Tossing oats into the thresher is labor intensive. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
I love, too, the passion I see here in tractor collectors and in those operating massive steam engines, guiding horses, shoveling and shelling corn, pitching and threshing oats, sawing wood, making ropes, creating commemorative wooden shingles, stitching leather, pounding hot metal, and much much more.
The barrel train passes the threshing area as it winds through the showgrounds. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
There are several vintage merry-go-rounds at the site and kids love them. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
One of several contestants I watched at the kids’ pedal tractor pull. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
I also love people-watching, seeing young and old alike immerse themselves in the past. This truly is a family event for all ages with hands-on activities for the kids and lots of reminiscing for those of us who grew up on farms. I watched kids spin on old-fashioned merry-go-rounds, grind corn, toss basketballs into hoops inside a grain wagon, pedal with all their might in a competitive kids’ pedal tractor pull, ride in an old-fashioned barrel train and on a mini train, steer tractors…
The event included music and dancing in the music hall, where a beer garden is also located. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
A flea market, music, food…they, too, are part of this well-organized show. It takes a lot of volunteers, a lot of work and dedication, a lot of time and commitment to pull this off.
Transported from the Rice County Historical Society in Faribault, this 1916 Case steam engine sparked the interest leading to the first show. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
This organization has grown this event, which began with a threshing demonstration in Faribault in 1974, sparking formation of the Rice County Steam Association and the first show near Warsaw in 1975. The 1916 50 hp Case steam engine that started it all 50 years ago was pulled out of storage at the Rice County Historical Society Museum for display at the 2025 show.
This young boy is focused and determined as he drives a John Deere during the tractor parade. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Three on board a Case for the tractor parade. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
I love the look of joy, admiration and contentment on this young boy’s face as he rides a John Deere in the parade. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Everywhere I walked, everywhere I looked, I saw smiles. I saw, too, an inter-generational connection over a shared love of tractors, farming of yesteryear, the rural way of life.
The lengthy parade of hundreds of tractors began at noon daily. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
In the noise of roaring farm machinery, in the belch of steam from massive steam engines, in the dust flying from shelling corn and threshing oats, in the clop of horses’ hooves, even in the scent of horse manure, I observed and experienced rural life as it once existed. Labor intensive. Dangerous. Family-centered. But at it’s core still the same. Valued. Honored. Truly a way of life rooted in the land and cherished by those who live upon and tend it.
Allis Chalmers guy. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Of the hundreds of photos I’ve taken at the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines spring and fall shows, this remains a favorite of a farmer watching threshing. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2012)
FOR ANYONE ROOTED in the land, this weekend’s annual Tractor Show at the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines showgrounds along Minnesota State Highway 3 south of Dundas is a must-attend. This event, celebrating its 50th year, is like a step back in time, when farming was much more labor intensive and equipment vastly different from the computerized equipment of today.
A mammoth threshing machine sits outside the fenced showgrounds on Wednesday. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
I’ve attended and photographed this show many times. And even though I’m not nearly as interested as my automotive machinist husband in old tractors, steam engines, threshing machines, small engines and miscellaneous vintage farm equipment, I still find plenty to appreciate. I am, after all, a born and raised farm girl who is incredibly proud of her rural heritage.
I’m also proud of Randy and all the work he’s done on vintage tractors. Without fail, someone will walk up to us at the show and tell him how great their tractor runs—the one he worked on. He’s overhauled many a tractor engine.
There’s a lot of work involved in putting on a tractor show that includes a daily noon tractor parade, a tractor pull, a kids’ pedal pull, flea market, living history demonstrations, petting zoo, mini train rides, food stands, live music, a cornhole tournament, raffle, Sunday morning church service, small engines and tractor displays, and much more.
Signage at the showgrounds entry notes this as the 50th anniversary Tractor Show. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
And to think that volunteers have organized this Tractor Show for 50 years is truly remarkable. Enthusiasm for showcasing rural history and preserving the past runs deep. Old buildings have even been moved on site like a log cabin, 1912 farmhouse, an old school, town hall, corn crib…
The flea market always draws me to look and shop. I challenge myself to find the strangest of merchandise. Not hard to do. Oddities abound.
This name was printed on one of the two threshing machines I photographed, presumably the original owners. Other names were penciled onto the metal. Another sign identified this as a Huber threshing machine. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
And then there are the people. I always run into someone I know. And that’s part of the experience, too. Standing and visiting. Catching up. Discussing whatever.
This all happens on the land, on acreage Rice County Steam & Gas Engines, Inc. opens twice annually to the public. The group holds a spring swap meet on Memorial Day weekend.
Two threshing machines sat outside the showgrounds fence at the entrance gate Wednesday afternoon. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
But for Labor Day weekend, the event focuses on tractors. Gates open at 7 a.m. daily, August 29-31. Admission for all three days is $10 for adults; those 12 and under enter free. I’d encourage you to attend if you live within driving distance. And that means anyone, whether you were raised rural or grew up in a city.
Freshly-picked sweetcorn at the Little Prairie roadside stand, rural Dundas. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
IF THE TASTE OF SUMMER can be defined in one word, then perhaps that would be “sweetcorn.”
Whether fresh from the garden, vended at farmers’ markets, sold at self-serve roadside stands or purchased at a local grocery store, Minnesota-grown sweetcorn tastes of earth and sky, sun and rain. There’s nothing quite like biting into that first corn of the season.
Little Prairie’s drive-up self-serve sweetcorn stand. Besides sweetcorn, there’s a small sunflower field for photo ops, but no maze this year. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Right now an abundance of locally-grown sweetcorn can be found throughout southern Minnesota. Randy and I picked some up at a stand just off State Highway 3 between Faribault and Dundas at Little Prairie Sunflower Maze, Pumpkins & Produce. I proclaimed it the best corn I’ve ever eaten. Randy reminded me that, given this was our first sweetcorn of the summer, I may have been biased in that declaration. But the corn was good, really good.
Pick and bag your corn and then pay at the unattended Little Prairie produce stand south of Dundas. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
I shared my assessment with a young couple who pulled into Kaden Ernst’s roadside stand while I snapped photos of his business on wheels complete with homemade signage and an honor system drop box for payment. Ernst also offers the option of scanning a QR code and paying via Venmo. The pair, who recently moved to the area from San Diego, seemed pleased to hear my blue ribbon endorsement of this sweetcorn grown by a young man pursuing an agronomy degree. Ernst has vended his sweetcorn and other produce at roadside stands since high school and I was happy to promote his product.
This sign on Faribault’s east side along Minnesota State Highway 60 promotes one of the area’s popular sweetcorn businesses. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Likewise, I could endorse many other local growers, including Hein’s Extra Sweet Corn, a family-run business since 1997. When Hein’s signs start popping up around Faribault, I know it’s time to purchase some corn. Customers can buy the fresh-picked-daily sweetcorn at the farm site four miles south of Faribault along Rice County Road 45 or at Hy-Vee grocery stores in Faribault, Owatonna or Mankato. Randy and I have also bought plenty of corn through the years from growers at the Faribault Farmers’ Market.
One of my favorite aspects of roadside stands is the kitschy homemade signage. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Many decades ago, I ate corn grown on my southwestern Minnesota childhood farm. Whatever corn we didn’t eat fresh, we froze in preparation for winter. “Making sweetcorn” was an all-day event which began with my dad and Uncle Mike harvesting a pick-up bed full of corn from their plantings. Then we, meaning adults and kids alike, husked the corn before Mom blanched it and the men cut the kernels from the cobs for packaging and freezing. That corn tasted of earth and sky, sun and rain in the deep of a frigid Minnesota winter. Just as sweetcorn still tastes today of earth and sky, sun and rain in the heat of a Minnesota summer.
Taking a spin on the merry-go-round at the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Fall Show. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
I LOVE WATCHING KIDS engage in activities from “the olden days.” Like circling on a vintage merry-go-round which, in today’s world, would fail all safety standards. But at the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines showgrounds in rural Dundas, playground and farm equipment of yesteryear, with all its inherently “dangerous” aspects, takes center stage. Common sense and caution are required at the bi-annual event which draws people of all ages. I observed a lot of young families at the recent Labor Day weekend farm show.
Train rides were a popular attraction with kids waiting in line to climb aboard. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
Tractors truly are a focal point of the farm show. This mini International sits on a train car. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
Horse-drawn wagon rides, too, drew lots of riders of all ages. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
From a ride on a mini replica train, to rides on tractors, in horse-drawn wagons, and in a barrel train, kids have plenty to do here.
Windy Willow Farm Adventure, rural Northfield, provided animals housed in this shed. There were sheep, goats, rabbits, geese and chickens from the farm, plus horses. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
Two friendly goats vie for attention. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
Tubs and buckets of corn await shelling. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
There are also clothes to feed through a ringer washer, corn to shell, animals to pet, a reel lawnmower to push and more.
The “engineer” of the barrel train steers a 1950s era Ford tractor around the showgrounds. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
Without rails, the barrel train weaves among the vintage tractors at the farm show. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
Anytime anyone can get kids outdoors, off their electronic devices and learning rural history, it’s a good thing. Organizers of the steam & gas engines show clearly understand the importance of activities that keep kids busy and happy while adults watch the tractor pull, listen to music, mill around the vintage tractors and more as they connect in this rural community gathering.
Father and son circle on a 1010 Model early 1960s John Deere pulling a cultivator. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
Most kids, even those from greater Minnesota, aren’t growing up “rural” anymore. Even if they live in the country, they’re not necessarily farm kids. So it’s important to expose them to the area’s agricultural heritage. The old tractors. The old farm machinery. The way clothes were washed and lawns were cut and how kids played back in the day.
The day after he competed in the pedal tractor pull and earned second place, this little guy was back pedaling. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)
A kids’ pedal tractor pull contest engages youth, allows them to compete, show off their strength. It’s also a way to build memories so that years from now perhaps they will bring their own kids to the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Show. They’ll remember those merry-go-round rides and how they climbed into a horse-drawn wagon and how they pedaled with all their leg power to get a mini tractor across a finish line. In the end, we all cross the finish line. And sometimes getting there requires experiencing a little danger mixed with a whole lot of fun.
A wagonload of oats awaits threshing at the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Fall Show. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2024)
MEMORIES. A HISTORY LESSON. A step back in time. The Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Fall Show is that and more. It’s also entertainment, a coming together of friends and families and neighbors. A reason to focus on farming of yesteryear.
Oats drape over the edge of the wagon. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2024)
I was among the crowds gathered over the Labor Day weekend at the showgrounds south of Dundas. This show features demos, rows and rows and rows of vintage tractors and aged farm machinery, a tractor pull, flea market, music, petting zoo, mini train rides and a whole lot more.
The scene is set to resume threshing with thresher, tractor, baler and manpower. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2024)
For me, a highlight was watching a crew of men threshing oats. The work is hard, labor intensive, even dangerous with exposed belts and pullies. It’s no wonder farmers lost digits and limbs back in the day.
This part of the threshing crew pitches oats bundles into the threshing machine. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2024)
While my observations are not connected to memories, my husband’s are as he recalls threshing on his childhood farm in rural Buckman, Morrison County, Minnesota. After Randy moved with his family from rural St. Anthony, North Dakota (southwest of Mandan), his dad returned to threshing oats. In North Dakota, he used a combine. But his father before him, Randy’s grandfather Alfred, threshed small grains.
Hard at work forking bundles into the thresher. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2024)
Lots of exposed pullies and belts line the threshing machine. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2024)
The workhorse of the operation, the threshing machine. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2024)
As I watched in Dundas, men forked bundles of oats into a McCormick-Deering thresher. The threshing machine separated the grain from the stalk, the oats shooting one direction into a wagon, the straw the other way into a growing pile. I stood mostly clear of the threshing operation with dust and chafe thick in the air.
Feeding the loose straw into the baler. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2024)
From the straw pile, a volunteer stuffed the stalks into the shoot of an aged baler. An arm tamped the straw, feeding it into the baler. Another guy stood nearby, feeding wire into the baler to wrap the rectangular bales. A slow, tedious process that requires attentiveness and caution.
Watching and waiting for the straw to compact in the baler. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2024)
The entire time I watched, I thought how easy it would be to lose focus, to look away for a moment, to get distracted and then, in an instant, to experience the unthinkable. Farming is, and always has been, a dangerous occupation.
Carefully guiding wire into the baler to wrap each bale. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2024)
Randy understands that firsthand as he witnessed his father get his hand caught in a corn chopper. Tom lost his left hand and part of his forearm. But Randy saved his life, running across fields and pasture to summon help. It is a traumatic memory he still carries with him 57 years later.
Threshing at Sunnybrook Farm, St. Anthony, North Dakota, as painted by Tom Helbling. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)
But memories of threshing are good memories, preserved today in an oil painting from the farm in North Dakota, Sunnybrook Farm. My father-in-law took up painting later in life. Among the art he created was a circa 1920s threshing scene. We have that painting, currently displayed in our living room. I treasure it not only for the hands that painted it, but also for the history held in each brush stroke.
Threshing grain, living history in 2024. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2024)
The painted scene differs some from the threshing scene I saw in Dundas. In North Dakota, horses were part of the work team, the tractor steam powered. In Dundas, there were no horses, no steam engine at the threshing site. Still, the threshing machine is the star, performing the same work. And men are still there, laboring under the sun on a late summer afternoon.
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