Harvest Host - South Dakota Tractor Museum

On our way across South Dakota, we looked for a place to stay overnight and decided to stay at a Harvest Host at the South Dakota Tractor Museum in Kimball, South Dakota. We had read that they had a lot of interesting things in their museum, and we found this to be the case!

Phyllis and Wayne were our hosts... Wayne gave us a tour. Carl took a LOT of pictures, saying, "I didn't know what you might want pictures of and I didn't know what things Jimmy might like to see."

And... I'm including almost all of them because, "I don't know what things Jimmy might like to see"! There are probably way more pictures than anyone wants to see!!!

The museum is made up of (currently) 7 buildings...

In most cases, Carl took a picture of a tractor (or other item) and then a picture of the description, so I'm including them like that. For most things, I don't have anything to add, but I'll add captions when I have something!

Wayne said that the Cockshutt was a unique tractor, but that there was another tractor in the museum that was made in the same factory -- I'll note that one when we get to it...

Note that the above tractor was restored as a high school project in 2012. Wayne said that all of the students at the high school had to complete a project before they graduated -- some kind of craft or trade that they could demonstrate something that they could do! I don't know whether this is still a requirement at their high school or not, but it sure seems like a good idea!

 

Wayne told us that this fence post had been eaten away by grasshoppers...

I guess having grasshopper guts all over the front of Gracie on Tuesday wasn't so bad compared to what they might do!

Wayne noted that you could put your own engine into the tractor... and... I can't recall what engine he said was in this -- maybe since the sign says Model A, it was a Model A engine?

This one is like the ones I remember on the farm from when I was growing up.

Up at the top of the post I indicated that Wayne had said that the Cockshutt was an odd tractor, but that they had another that was made by the same manufacturer -- I'm pretty sure this was it...

Two pictures of this tractor -- description above between the two pictures.

That ends one side of the first building... the other side was all green and yellow (John Deere) and almost all are owned / provided to the museum by the same fellow!

I don't think we got a description for this one...

Next building! Lest you think this Tractor Museum has only tractors!

The Kimball City Jail

The owner of this tractor didn't have a particularly high opinion of John Deere tractors...

No picture of information sheet ...

Not only were there tractors and implements at ground level...

... but they were up above too!

The third building was a one room schoolhouse. Wayne said that he had gone to school in a one-room schoolhouse for 1-8 grades -- he said that there were 6 children in his school. He also said that when a township was laid out, there would be two sections reserved for schools -- as I understood it, not necessarily for the location of the school, but that the rent or use-fees of that land would serve to support the school. He said that, before there was electricity or plumbing in the schoolhouse, the one-room schoolhouse might be moved around to locate it closer to where the children lived in the area.

Inside the one-room schoolhouse that they have on the Tractor Museum property.

Description for the item pictured below...

A *lot* of work handling hay!

Description for item pictured below...

This car was SO long -- I just looked it up and it was 224.7" -- over 18' long -- almost half as long as Gracie! How would you park something like that??? The parking spaces must have been bigger then...

We didn't get the description for this one (also in the next picture).

No description captured...

No description captured

No description captured... but two pictures!

Gracie and the Jee-rage in front of the South Dakota Tractor Museum.

We enjoyed our visit to the museum and had a very restful night! The volunteers at the museum are outstanding -- and I suspect there will be more buildings with more items donated by these very dedicated folks! While most of what we got pictures of were tractors or other farm equipment, there was also a building with household items - an old hairdresser's "permanent wave" machine, old telephones (can't believe Carl didn't take pictures of those!), old kitchen appliances. Phyllis indicated that she has a large collection of kerosene lanterns and sewing machines that she wants to donate. The museum may have twice as many buildings by the next time we are through this area!