Gilbert Tractor Club
Dec. 3, 2022
Meeting Place: Heartland Museum and Pizza Ranch, Clarion
Welcome \ Introductions: Bob kicked off our meeting.
Guest and family additions: None
Treasurer Report: not noted
Old Business: none discussed
New Business: Calendars are here with us today. Cost to make was 14.95 and we’re selling for $15.00
Start paying your dues for 2023. You can pay today as you buy your calendars.
Discussion Items: The Jewell toy show is no longer in Jewell. The Ames Lions are now handling the Jewell toy show and it’s going to be held on Sunday, March 5th at the Boone County Fairgrounds. Don Johnson will have a table. See Don if you have addition interest.
Auction or Threshing events: None
For Sale or Wish List: None
Presentation: Larry Maasdam
Approximately 20 of us, toured a building south of the museum which housed various makes and models of tractors. Some rare, some from Germany, a lot of high crop tractors, a kit tractor from Montgomery Wards and other interesting items. From there we went to warmth in Heartland Museum. There were a lot of interesting room exhibits from kitchens, a Victorian room, jails, photograph, garage, bank, bears and more. We wound our way around going from exhibit to exhibit until we came to the huge tractor room which featured additional rare tractors, peddle tractors, replica of the Big Bud tractor, trucks, many horse drawn carriages, sleighs, a hearse, milk wagon and many more horse drawn items. There were snowmobiles, which we learned Larry raced at one time. The upper level displayed a lot of toy construction equipment, toy tractors and other collectibles. A local artist had created a replica of a church, the one room school he’d attended and a farm. They had lights and a lot of detailed work. The museum also had small room exhibits, one of which featured another local artist who did wood working and carving to create beautiful trains, tractors, trucks and huge ships with a lot of string work and detailed gun holes complete with guns. Various rooms contained farm items. One room contained hog oilers, another railroad items, and one with Farmall. There were a lot old advertising signs on the walls. One was a florescent Allis Chalmers crawler which did light up. They also had a small one-person airplane hanging and setting above of the display rooms.
From the museum we headed to Pizza Ranch, where they weren’t really ready for us, so the club helped get the room ready. We enjoyed lunch, bought calendars and paid dues then headed to Larry’s’ home north of town.
In the shop we saw many older signs, different than those in the museum and what they were working on. From there we went to another building which contained additional toys. Larry stated there really weren’t duplicates between what he had in the house, up at the museum and in this building. On top of the display cabinets were various peddle tractors and construction equipment. There were a lot of larger interesting construction pieces which had a lot of impressive string work. The was a huge dredger with various buckets. Melaine, Larry’s wife, had left warm chocolate chip cookies, coffee and mixed nuts for all to enjoy. From there many ventured into Larry’s basement to see even more construction toys and tractors. Setting outside the shop at Larry’s was an old, large tile digger. As you drove in and out of Clarion, on the east side of town, you’d see many more of Larry’s collectable old iron pieces from construction items to tractors, crawlers and more.
Secretary Report by: Marlene Youde