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.
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.
Photo cut-outs just inside the entrance. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
BARELY INSIDE THE GATES of the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Show mid Friday morning, I boarded a train. It was an unexpected ride, this double loop around the tracks while straddling a slightly swaying model train car. I thought these free train rides were only for kids. Not so, the crew assured me.
The model train carries all ages. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
On a train car, a mini Massey-Harris the featured tractor. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
Riding the rails. Kids must be accompanied by an adult. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
When I disembarked, a preschooler sandwiched between two adults for his turn on the rails.
Photographed on a tractor, show stickers. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
What a fun way to begin my four hours at the show, which continues through Sunday at the event grounds south of Dundas, which is south of Northfield. This 47th annual gathering is about “Preserving a Bit of Yesterday for Tomorrow.” And that’s exactly what you will find here. Old. Aged. Vintage. Snapshots into the past. Farming as it was done back in the day. Agriculture/farming/rural life center the show.
Massey-Harris tractors all in a row. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
Conversation while leaning on a John Deere. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
A tractor made by Cockshutt and marketed by Gambles. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
Vintage tractors are the focus with a field of tractors on display. This year’s featured brand is Massey-Harris. But brands ranging from the well-known John Deere, Allis Chalmers, International Harvester…to the rare Gambles line the grassy grounds.
The threshing crew. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
Other farm machinery is also on-site, including a threshing machine, typically threshing oats, but under repair during my visit.
The blacksmith at work. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
There’s simply so much to see here, so much equipment to take in, so many demonstrations to watch. I observed blacksmithing and sorghum pressing. There’s also syrup making, corn shelling, flour milling, lumber sawing… Not all were up and running yet Friday morning.
The 1912 farmhouse. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
Sorghum towers in a field. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
Delicious cookies made with sorghum. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
While demonstrations are a major draw, so are the aged farm buildings moved onto the grounds. Inside the 1912 Drentlaw farmhouse, my friend Ruth served cookies made with sorghum.
Pressing sorghum. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
Across the way, two men fed sorghum stalks into a press, liquid streaming into a bucket.
A massive stove defines the farmhouse kitchen. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
As I walked upon the wood floors of the farmhouse, I felt immersed in the past. A wood-burning stove anchors the small kitchen where a water dipper rests in an enamelware bowl in the sink. Embroidered dish towels drape a drying rack.
The dining room table set for guests. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
In the dining room, with fine china set upon a lace-covered table, the morning breeze billowed lace curtains.
Rounding the corn crib… (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
Outside the main house sits a summer kitchen with a corn crib and granary nearby. Replicating a farm site of yesteryear seems a goal. As a farm girl, I appreciate these efforts to preserve a bit of yesterday. Our Minnesota agrarian history needs to be shared at events like this which connect all ages to a way of life that is quickly vanishing.
My oddest find at this year’s flea market. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
Even the flea market connects attendees to the past where old stuff mixes with crafts and an assortment of other merchandise. Every time here, I challenge myself to find oddities, weird whatever that makes me do a double take. This year’s vendors did not disappoint me.
A burger basket from the Northfield Knights of Columbus. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
Nor did the food. Vendors offer an assortment of tasty food and beverages ranging from burgers and fries to Mexican food, milkshakes, lemonade, kettle corn, mini donuts and more. It’s all about food and conversation and watching the daily tractor parade at noon while seated at a picnic table in the Food Pavilion.
One of three musicians in the band Steam Machine performs Friday afternoon. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
Over in the poleshed style music building, I listened to the bluegrass band Steam Machine. A couple danced across the cement floor, nearby hay racks piled with oats bundles. I photographed, then attempted to cool down after too much time in the heat and humidity.
A gigantic ear of corn made of milk jugs. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
A poster promotes the 2023 Credit River show. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
I love how so many people care about our agricultural history. That includes the guys from the Credit River Antique Tractor Club who were selling raffle tickets for a 1952 Ford 8N tractor. Their annual show is set for July 14-16, 2023, in rural New Prague.
Teaching the younger generation about tractors. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2022)
The Rice County folks will be back, too, in 2023, “Preserving a Bit of Yesterday for Tomorrow.” There will be a tractor parade, a Kids Pedal Pull, demonstrations, tractors galore and, oh, so much more at the Labor Day weekend show. Even train rides…
Grayden Moorhouse of Randolph holds freshly-threshed oats.
GRAYDEN MOORHOUSE unfurls his palm, revealing some two dozen oat kernels before dropping several into my hand.
He wants me to try them, to separate the meat from the hull with my teeth and spit the shell onto the ground.
I try, without success, and then he hands me a single kernel already hulled.
All the while I am thinking this:
I shoveled plenty of oats in my day growing up on a dairy and crop farm. And why would I want to eat raw oats, which I associate with cattle feed?
But Grayden is one of those guys who seems convincing and I like the strong sound of his name and, heck, what’s life without trying something new occasionally?
So I eat the single oat kernel and that is enough for me. I’d rather eat my oats in oatmeal.
Now that I’ve ended that introductory narrative, let’s follow the path of how those oat kernels ended up in Grayden’s hand via this photo essay from the Rice County Steam and Gas Engine Show this past weekend in rural Dundas.
Shoveling the raw oats into the conveyor system.
An overview of the threshing equipment and process of separating the oats kernels from the stem.
Bill Becker of rural Northfield mans the Minneapolis Moline which powers the threshing operation.
More shoveling of oat bundles, a dusty, dirty job.
The dust flies as men and machine work.
Plenty of farmers and retired farmers watch, remembering…
While horses plow a nearby field (left), the threshing crew continues working.
And the straw pile grows.
Finally, meet Grayden Moorhouse, whose strong name, it seems to me, belongs in a western.
FYI: Please check back for more posts from the steam and gas engine show. You’ll meet one interesting character and an incredible teen, plus ride along with me on the back of a truck.
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
Recent Comments