September 2022

History Day 2022

By Paul Harvey

With the great weather from the June Show still upon us, our History Day event in July turned out to be a great time for all. We had a relaxed opportunity to visit with old friends, and to make some new ones. This article is a photo essay of the event. Enjoy the story told by the photos.

As the morning unfolded, I Gatored over to check the visitor parking. Great! There are a lot here already, and the event is just getting started. Promises to be a wonderful day.

Time for breakfast, and I found that Dana had a line waiting for her goodies. My wife, Marilyn, and I enjoyed the food while visiting with so many guests. A good start!

Angel and Lory had the museum’s Gifts and Souvenirs Shop open and did a nice business during the day. So, what else to see?

Arthur McKinley had been here and made some postings about the Cadillac museum. Dr. Steve Greenberg’s Cadillac Museum in nearby Brookville proudly displays the world’s largest collection of vintage Cadillacs. Arthur worked with me to have our open dates coincide this year to provide more for visitors to our area. It has worked well.

But now, let’s take a trip to our display field to see what’s here. And it is very interesting!

Wow! Here is what I found as I Gatored there. Nice. So, let’s just see some of the details. Excellent exhibits.

Surprisingly, a Corvette Club attended with this array of fantastic cars. Hmmm? I think I will take the yellow one!

A Jeepster! I remember when they came out. Great, practical vehicles.

Carl Cook had his beautiful LTL Mack here pulling his camper trailer. It has air-conditioned living quarters as well as plenty of room to take another display along. Many thanks, Carl!

Thanks to our board member, Ben Steffy, for driving and displaying his 1952 Jeep. Yep, this is what they should look like! Thanks, Ben.

Wow! A vintage International truck hauling a John Deere tractor. I love the mix of the red and green. The truck looks like an R model and has a neat sun visor.

Josh Frye’s blue R model Mack is always a great addition. Glad you brought it, Josh.

Museum Director Chris Austin looks happy operating this International Titan tractor. What a melodious sound it’s exhaust made!

Mark Himes brought the ton and a half, B series International truck that the late John Wilcox owned. With its four-wheel drive and 240 cubic inch engine, it could go anywhere. I have driven it many times, and with John have made some amazing gas engine retrievals with it. Not very fast, but it always got there, waded through the mire, and got back. Always good to see it here.

Three more exhibits to make the show interesting! A nice Kenworth hauling three John Deere tractors, the Autocar with a big winch owned by three of our members, and the orange Diamond Reo dump truck owned by Steve Wolbert. It is a working truck here on the museum grounds.

Two nicely restored John Deere tractors. The number series like the 50 replaced the earlier letter series as seen with the B. Great comparison.

A bit of a surprise for me! Our Director Ben Steffy had the 80 hp Alberger engine running beautifully. Here we see Ben tweaking the gas cock as his brother, Luke, is walking behind.

This engine, along with its Deane 8 by 12 triplex pump provided the water for the town on Mt. Jewett, Pennsylvania. John Wilcox and I brought it home so many years ago and it waited a long time to live again. Great job, Ben and Luke!

As the excellent day ended and our visitors had departed, what to do next. Yep, eat. And that’s we did. Kevin Kusel provided the corn and others furnished the burgers and dogs. Of course, some great conversation followed. An exceptional event with gratitude to all who made it happen.