Old thresher steam event draws huge crowds to Iowa town  

The town of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, sits in Iowa’s southeast corner, in the middle of gently rolling fields of corn and soybeans. Over the recent Labor Day weekend, its normal population of about 9,000 almost quadrupled as visitors flocked to its signature annual event, the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion.

Families strolled the show grounds in the sunny weather, fanning themselves with programs and stopping at one of the many booths for caramel apples, popcorn, smoked turkey legs, smoked pork sandwiches, hot dogs and lemonade. An old steam train on a fixed track offered a tour of the grounds, or visitors could take a ground train ride, with teenaged volunteers ushering riders on and off and riding alongside.

The event offers many attractions of other farm fairs. But among the more than 100 events and activities, the focus of this one is steam—steam tractors and old steam-driven farm equipment. Most midwestern farm states have similar events. But none are as big, feature as much old steam equipment or offer as dedicated a focus on the history of farm technology.

“It’s hard to explain exactly what it is until you attend one,” said Terry McWilliams, CEO of Midwest Old Settlers and Threshers Association, which sponsors the annual event. MOSTA was founded in 1950 by “four guys who wanted to play with their steam equipment,” according to one volunteer. Lennis Moore, a legendary figure, directed the event from 1978 until he died in 2014, when McWilliams took over. Together the two men have made it the largest of its kind in the Midwest.
  
The Mount Pleasant Labor Day event is the business of the entire town. Most residents have some kind of side hustle at the event, from acting as guides to selling lemonade, food or souvenirs.  Families with homes near the campground charge for parking in their yards. McWilliams, a Mount Pleasant native, has also served on the town council. He did event planning for colleges and universities before taking the helm at MOSTA.

The 160-acre property is divided into many display areas. There is a tractor area where the steam tractors parade and compete, a steam area which houses the permanent buildings, and a large campground with a thousand electrical hook-ups that during the event was packed with campers and trailers.

One of the permanent buildings is a round pavilion that houses an old-fashioned steam carousel for which the music was provided by a towable steam calliope on a trailer. Besides the tractor events, demonstrations are given of how old farm equipment worked, including threshers and a saw mill area.

In the early days of steam farming, farm equipment was so expensive that one family might own a steam tractor, while another owned a thresher. They would collaborate to thresh their own fields, then hire out to thresh their neighbors’ fields during harvest. When diesel tractors were introduced, their price eventually fell to the point where each farm family could own their own and the pieces of steam equipment retreated to barns and fields—some to await being lovingly restored.

Throughout the day, collectors of traction engines compete against each other, making turns and revolutions with referees timing them with a phone app and announcing the winners. Some of the mini steam traction engines are driven by children as young as 10, with a trained operator aboard. There is a mini-railroad on its own little track for young kids next to the main steam train tracks.

The Old Threshers operates the permanent Richard E. Oetken Heritage Museum on site. The museum is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. from Memorial Day through Labor Day, governed by a board of 12 members and operated by a staff of six and numerous volunteers. “Dedicated to preserving the history of rural America” it keeps busy throughout the year with visits from schools and special events.

The Old Threshers Association has made the venue as family-friendly as possible, with special events like the “Thrashers House of Terror,” “Midwest Haunted Rails,” and “Festival of Lights.” In the spring, it offers a steam school and a trolley school.

It is sustained by local donors, mostly families along with local businesses and contractors. “Most of our fund-raising is local,” said McWilliams.

“Over the years, we are seeing more and more visitors who are a generation or two removed from farming,” said McWilliams. As that happens, the role of venues and groups like this will become even more important, as they tell part of the full story of farming in America.

The United States is not the only country where steam-tractor events are popular. Australia and Canada also have them, and in England, birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, “steam rallies” are huge. There’s a National Trust for preserving old steam traction engines and farm equipment, and most counties in England have steam rallies.

For more on the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion, visit their website at https://www.oldthreshers.org. 

David Murray can be reached at [email protected]. 

Pictures courtesy of the 2023 Old Threshers Reunion, Mt. Pleasant, IA