Heritage Park of North Iowa

[macorson]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RePaHyqdLFM&feature=plcp
 

[leon]

Thanks for posting. I live in northern Iowa and had never heard of this place. With help from google I find it's at Forest City.
http://www.heritageparkofnorthiowa.com/
 

[dan_41jdh]

leon, I think Heritage Park is one of the little-known secrets of threshing shows. The entire facility is only about 12 years old or so, and it's an incredible place. There was basically nothing there and they've built the entire facility in a very short period of time, and have spent an enormous amount of time and money to make it what it is.

I've exhibited there since they opened, and once when the threshing show was held near Hanlontown before a number of groups consolidated their efforts and created Heritage Park.

A couple of the movers and shakers behind the facility have remarkable collections of large prairie tractors and steam engines as well as antique cars, trucks, farm tractors, threshing machines, etc. The focus of the show is on steamers and prairie tractors and it's always a treat to see upwards of 10 threshing machines running simultaneously, powered by steam, old Rumleys, Aultman-Taylors, etc. This year they had two 110 HP Case steamers pulling large gang plows at the same time.

There are hit-and-miss engines and farm tractors of course, and this year they featured IH, and there was a huge number of Red Power tractors there. In fact, they pushed all the other brands into areas not normally used for displays.

Besides all the action, there's quite a village that has been moved onto the grounds, including an interesting museum, a huge old country church, a couple of large farm houses, barns, a grainery, a school building, several WWII vintage barracks buildings with displays, etc.

I've only touched on some of the things they have, and they're not to the scale of a Mount Pleasant or Rollag show, but it's one of the better threshing shows you'll find in this area.