LARNED — By 9 a.m. Saturday, there were flywheels spinning, pistons thumping and smoke billowing from the Santa Fe Trail Center. The 22nd annual SFTC Tired Iron Show continued Sunday in its weekend tribute to antique mechanics and agriculture, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The number of tractors lined up for the traditional Parade of Power chugging by the bleachers at the west end of the grounds didn’t look tired.
Just old. In fact, everyone from 8 to past 80 looked wide -awake, involved, and were having a good time.
So why the name?
From ‘show’ to ‘go’
The fact just might be that nobody really knows. There is a fair bit of history predating the event that started as a simple static display 31 years ago by eight farmers and their tractors at the Edwards County Fair. Just putting the equipment on display wasn’t enough, however, and the Kinsley “Tired Iron Club” started looking at entertainments like tractor pulls, races, and demonstrations. As their membership swelled, neighbors in other counties got their own act together.
Old-iron enthusiasts in Pawnee County were putting together their own event at the SFTC, in conjunction with long-running Santa Fe Trail Days in early summer. The first Pawnee County event was billed as the “Santa Fe Trail Iron Show” over the weekend in May 2002. That first event had free steam tractor rides from the same engine appearing in this weekend’s mechanical extravaganza.
For the kids, Saturday’s fare back then included living history in the SFTC’s one-room schoolhouse and on Sunday there was a pedal tractor pull.
The “Tired” came later, as event organizer Larry Carr explained during the fourth annual event in 2005. The show was moved from May to October, with the Kinsley club disbanded and made part of the show.
“It’s beautiful weather for a tractor show,” Carr was quoted as saying as he teamed up with Jeff Delaney to pitch in for that year’s threshing demonstration. Carr alluded that the “Tired” was brought in as an homage to the original Kinsley club.
Carr even brought his own 1943 “M” Farmall, 1943 “S” Case and a John Deere to the first “Tired” show. “It’s just a hobby; some of them have been restored and some need restored,” he quipped.
An enduring demonstration throughout the entire history of the show is the anvil shooting performed by Larry Freeman, from Hutchinson, who also frequently competes in the sport of firing off a 100-pound “shooters anvil” for prize money. They’ve been coming to the Tired iron Show for two decades.
Throughout its history, activities have come and gone, but some are coming back, noted SFTC Director Seth McFarland.
“This year we’re doing the ‘Motor Run’ and we’re also doing the ‘Peddler’s Market,’” McFarland said. “They are not really new, but more of a ‘return-to.’
“We found a peddler’s pin that might even pre-date the first iron show and thought that it would be fun.”
The show has grown into a wonderful mix of past, present and future, McFarland noted.
“It was originally just supposed to be about the equipment, but it’s turned out to be about the people,” he said. “It was always a family event; but in the participants we are now seeing the younger generations taking over from their parents, grandparents and in some cases, great-grandparents.”
