McCormick Deering?

[Patrick Emerson]

Directly behind my great Uncle Vernon's house in the ghost town of Kanona, Kansas there's been an enormous vehicle frame which I've always wondered about. The town's been deserted since 1949 and I haven't been there for a number of years.

Posting images of old Kansas Scenes, I placed a photograph of it's rusting carcass on my Flickr site. To see if log onto Flickr.com. Search under People for KansasPhoto. Take a look at the set of photos under Kanona. It's entitled "Great Beast."

I'm fairly ignorant about such things and I've always wondered about it's smooth, but extremely wide rear wheels.

Yesterday, in the only store in Mildred, Kansas, there was a collection of very old tractors advertisements. I immediately saw a photograph of a very old McCormick Deering and I instantly recognized the rear wheels and understood that the holes in the wheels once held cleats that were removed.

If there are any McCormick Deering fans out there, could you send me a note with any information? I'd appreciate it.

 

[Bob]

Here's the photo, for those more "expert" than me, on ID'ing old IH's:

<img src = "http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1108/530616492_9d115ea415.jpg?v=0">

 

[Anonymous-0]

I grew up about 10 miles NW of Kanona; went to several zone spelling contests and track meets there in the mid 50's.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Hard to see a lot of it, I am going with a Mogul Jr. as a longshot guess. Whatever you do, DON'T let it get scrapped. I, for one, would love to see it, but I am sure there are some people that could use some or all of it.

 

[Patrick Emerson]

Although I'm in the same state, the abandoned town where it's located is some 400 miles away! I'll see if I can contact the local historical society because I've heard that the townsite was recently sold and I'd like to contact the new owner as I may travel there in August.

I doubt if much has changed since the photograph was taken several years ago. The remains of this machine have abandoned buildings on most sides and a gully with woods on the other - you can see some of the trees in the background. It takes a great deal of effort to even walk to it - let alone pull it out. The hillside is covered with a wide assortment of very old farm machinery of all sorts - which is why I wasn't certain that it was even a tractor!

If any of you reading have the books, "Ghost Towns of Kansas" or "Still More Ghost Towns of Kansas" it has a long article about the town, the fires, and the bank failure all of which contributed to it's eventual abandonment.

The area around the town is farmed, but the land is not very fertile and the effort to clear the site of trees and concrete foundations simply wouldn't be worthwhile. I've visited the place often under the previous owner, but need to speak with the current before I go back. My mother lived in another house that's still standing, but the one church where my relatives were wed and buried is an atmospheric pile of wood.

My family's association with the place goes back to a great grandfather who built a soddy 2 miles from the town in 1869 and who ran the grain elevator there until the 1920s.

Although I'd love to see the site of the town preserved, seeing antique farm equipment literally rust to nothing isn't preservation!