Cedar Valley Memories (29th annual show), Osage, Iowa - August 9-10, 2025 (2 days - Saturday & Sunday) Second full weekend in August

Steam Engine Show and Back to the Farm Reunion (62nd Annual), Booneville, Missouri - September 4th -7th, 2025 (4 days - Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday)

Cedar Valley Memories (28th annual show), Osage, Iowa - August 10-11, 2024 (2 days - Saturday & Sunday)

Steam Engine Show and Back to the Farm Reunion (61st Annual), Booneville, Missouri - Sept 5th -8th, 2024 (4 days - Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday)

Cedar Valley Memories (27th annual show), Osage, Iowa - August 12-13, 2023 (Saturday & Sunday)

Farm Equipment Museum - Smolik Exhibit - Cedar Valley Memories 2023 - Osage, IowaThreshing Demonstrations - Cedar Valley Memories 2023 - Osage, Iowa

Stationary Engine - Cedar Valley Memories 2023 - Osage, IowaThreshing Demonstrations - Cedar Valley Memories 2023 - Osage, Iowa

Threshing Demonstrations - Cedar Valley Memories 2023 - Osage, Iowa

August 12, 2023. Saturday afternoon. Perfect day for a steam show. Cool sunny summer weather. I will be posting more photos from this event later and will put the link to those photos here after they are ready. I spent more time in the village workshops area this year. Blacksmiths, woodworkers. The sock knitting machines were giving live demonstrations. The woodworking shop and sock shop both had line shafts running to operate their equipment. Live steam powered threshing demonstrations and steam tractors pulling plows for the field work demonstration.

Steam Tractor Powering Sawmill - Midwest Old Threshers Reunion 2023

Midwest Old Threshers Reunion 2023 - Steam Train

Steam Tractors - Midwest Old Threshers Reunion 2023

Old Threshers is a gigantic event and unless you plan to spend at least 4 days here, there simply isn't enough time to see everything. So this year I chose to hit up the Heritage Museums and spend more time at the Log Village. The goal here was to get more photos of rural living and implements of early American farms and villages. From the Log Village to the early 1900s farm displays in the Heritage Museum exhibits, these photos give the reader a good overview of some of the tools and implements that made the farmer and rural population self reliant and enabled them to be prosperous and successful - things that we no longer see anywhere else in the urban world of today. The rural peoples of this earlier period in American rural life did almost everything for themselves, and this is especially true of the early American settlers. The settlers built their own houses, farmed, started businesses on the side for off-farm trade, and literally built our country with their own blood and sweat. And they did this without modern electricity. The most prosperous period in our modern era was during the very early 1900s. And Midwest Old Threshers Reunion gives us a great demonstration of what it was like to live during that earlier time and what sorts of tools and implements were used to make everyday tasks faster and easier.

Steam Engine Show and Back to the Farm Reunion (60th Annual), Booneville, Missouri - Sept 7th -10th, 2023 (4 days - Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday)

Back To The Farm Reunion 2023 - Antique One-Lung Engines

Back To The Farm Reunion 2023 - Steam Tractors

Back To The Farm Reunion 2023 - Farming Demonstration With Horse Power

Back To The Farm Reunion 2023 - Threshing Demonstration With Steam Tractor

Back To The Farm Reunion 2023 - Antique Cars & Trucks

Small steam power show with everything. Antique cars and pickup trucks, old farming implements and equipment, antique tractors and combines, antique one-lung engines, and of course steam tractors. Live demonstrations of threshing and sawmilling with steam power tractors. Horse farming field work demonstrations. One-lung engines operating small farm equipment. Blacksmithing demonstrations with smiths that make some nice stuff. Pioneer log cabin display. Flea market and food vendors. Ice cream making. Kids stuff.

Back To The Farm Reunion 2023 - Blacksmithing Demonstration

Back To The Farm Reunion 2023 - Antique Tractors

This show is an excellent place for beginning blacksmiths to see working blacksmiths making things. These guys make some very nice ironwork and visitors can watch this stuff being made. I will post photos of this shop in the next few days. Some of the blacksmiths forge whimsical fun animal heads on hooks and hardware. Nice demonstration for new smiths.

Theshing demonstration includes both steam tractors and antique gasoline and oil tractors. One-lung engine displays include operating tools and implements such as water pumps, windmill pump jacks, machine shop and wood shop machines, farm animal feed grinders and other useful tools and machines. Older farm machine displays include older style combines, binders, hay balers. Ice cream maker uses one-lung engine to operate the ice cream machine. Kids stuff includes sand box, hay bale maze, ground train and toy tracked train ride.

The event takes place on a large farm grounds with rolling hills and woods. Pioneer log cabins are set up in the shade near the farming demonstration field.

Back To The Farm Reunion 2023 - Sawmilling Demonstration With Steam Tractor

Back To The Farm Reunion 2023 - Children's Hay Maze

Easy to find, the site is located on south side of the interstate highway exit 111 on I-70 near Boonevill, Missouri. See the large red flywheel standing up in the air along the fence next to the exit intersection.

2022

26th Annual Cedar Valley Memories - Osage, Iowa - August 13-14, 2022

https://www.mitchellcountyhistoricalsociety.org/cedar-valley-memories

18791 Hwy 9
Osage, IA

Sawmill - Cedar Valley Memories 2022 Show

Smolik Agricultural Exhibit - Farming Tools, Machinery, and Implements - Cedar Valley Memories 2022 Show

1912 Reeves 40-140 Cross Compound and 1910 Phoenix Log Hauler - Cedar Valley Memories 2022 Show

Rumley Oil Pull Tractor - Cedar Valley Memories 2022 Show

August 16, 2022. Photos here at right were taken just 3 days ago at the 2022 26th Annual Cedar Valley Memories event. Another great show. I can't believe it's been 26 years since I last visited this show. I was actually at their very first show back in 1996. A friend of mine was helping out at this event and they were working on the Case 110. The sky was overcast and although this adds a lot of drab gray to the photos, it also reduces problems of extremes of lighting differences and makes it easier to really pull out the color in editing. I will be adding another page full of photos from this event later, and will post the link here when it is ready. This show features live field work and threshing with steam tractors, sawmilling, and other demonstrations throughout the day. The Smolik farm implement museum features a large number of old farming tools and implements and machines from the late 1800s and early 1900s. One the photos here shows a tiny part of the Smolik exhibit. Bring a good camera.

57th Annual Old Time Power Show, Cedar Falls, Iowa - Friday, Saturday, & Sunday
August 19, 20, 21 - 2022
http://www.antiqueacres.org/

Blacksmith Shop - 2022 57th Annual Old Time Power Show - Cedar Falls, Iowa

Steam Tractor Powering Saw Mill - 2022 57th Annual Old Time Power Show - Cedar Falls, Iowa

Steam Power & Saw Mill - 2022 57th Annual Old Time Power Show - Cedar Falls, Iowa

Steam Tractor - 2022 57th Annual Old Time Power Show - Cedar Falls, Iowa

Photos here are from the 2022 57th Annual Old Time Power Show in Cedar Falls, IA. It rained during the late afternoon while I was visiting this show. The rain gave the machines a nice wash and made for some excellent photos. This show has permanent museum and exhibit buildings for some of their displays including a saw mill, large engine room, small farming implement shed, blacksmith shop, thresher storage shed, and other buildings. Live field work, threshing, sawmilling, and other demonstrations take place throughout the day. Threshing, field work, and sawmilling demonstrations all use live steam power tractors.

Sawmill - Old Threshers Reunion 2022 - Mt. Pleasant, Iowa

Steam Tractor - Old Threshers Reunion 2022 - Mt. Pleasant, Iowa

Midwest Old Threshers Reunion is a very big show with the largest number of steam power and antique tractors from around the state of Iowa and nearby states. Narrow gauge restored steam trains run around the railroad track on the north half of the park, and restored antique electric interurban trolleys run around the southern half of the grounds. The electric trolley has multiple stops along it loop to pick up drop off riders along its route from the main station in the center of the park, the camp grounds, and the Log Village at the south side of the park.

The Heritage Museum (in the center of the park) includes two large exhibit buildings. Inside the Heritage Museums are numerous large historical collections set up to display life in rural communities and farmsteads. Also included in the Heritage Museum buildings is a working model of a large grain grinding and flour mill, large steam and diesel engine electrical generation and pumping engines, small farm grain grinding mills, threshing equipment and a full size display of a steam tractor and thresher operation, agricultural equipment, printing presses, antique cars, antique tractor repair shop, farmstead tools and displays of domestic items typically found in rural homes.

Antique Tractors - Old Threshers Reunion 2022 - Mt. Pleasant, Iowa

Threshing Machine - Old Threshers Reunion 2022 - Mt. Pleasant, Iowa

One Lung Engines - Farm Power Line Shaft - Mt. Pleasant, Iowa

One Lung Engines - Old Threshers Reunion 2022

Large Stationary Engines - Mt. Pleasant, Iowa

Next to the large steam engine and diesel engine exhibits is a working line shaft powered machine shop. A large crafts and flea market takes up the opposit half of the building with the large stationary engines. For blacksmith's this crafts and flea market is where you can find a good source of bees wax for making furniture and iron finish.

There are so many other exhibits and buildings located througout the park, I can't even begin to list them all here. So here is just a small sampling.

In the large area between the main steam train station and North Village are the steam traction engines power area, antique gas and kerosene tractors, horse power farming demonstrations, Grand Stand for big name music concerts and horse and tractor pulling contests, a permanent antique car and truck museum, one-lung engine display area, large food vendors court, revival style church tents, children's farm tractor driving course for teaching young ones to drive tractors, Steam power headquarters area, antiques sales barn, and of course the North Village with ice cream shop, general store, saloon, jail, bank, church, post office, quilt maker, chuck wagon, blacksmiths, and steam train station. Both blacksmith shops fun live demostrations all day long. In the North Village, the steam train tends to get robbed a lot, so hide your valuables. Bandits seem to infest the town and the sheriff is constantly chasing them around.

The live steam-powered thresher demonstrations are set up to the west of the horse powered demostration site. Nearly all of the steam tractors exhibitied at this event have been fully restored and are running during the event.

South of the Heritage Museums is the steam powered carousel, glass blowing demonstrations, food vendors, flea market, and the electric trolley station. A large camp grounds takes up most of the south half of the park.

Log Village - Woodworking Shop - Old Threshers Reunion 2022 - Mt. Pleasant, Iowa

Blacksmith Shop - Log Village - Midwest Old Threshers Reunion 2022

Log Village - Old Threshers Reunion 2022 - Mt. Pleasant, Iowa

Electric Trolley Stop - Log Village - Old Threshers Reunion 2022

The Log Village is located at the very southern-most tip of the park. One could walk through the camp grounds to get to the Log Village but, the most convenient way to get there is to ride the electric trolley. The trolley stops at the Log Village to pick up and drop off visitors.

The Log Village re-creates life in a rural Iowa village around the year 1850. In the center of the Log Village is a barn with animals. Around the barn are the one-room school house, wood worker, blacksmith, general store (food and drinks), cabin (live demonstration of prairie living), and other buildings that I have not described here. Several civil war era tent vendors are also located around the Log Village. Horse and wagon demonstrations are run throughout the day. The blacksmith and wood working shops both have live demonstrations all day long. The wood working shop offers a tremendously valuable look into what life was like for wood workers during this era and the tools used. Many of the wood worker's tools and benches in this shop are/were hand made.

This show is massive, and if one is interested in learning about blacksmithing or woodworking, this is an excellent resource.

During most of the past years, I didn't post photos from these events. Only dates and locations. After each show I simply deleted each entry and posted the new dates for each of the shows. And that is why there are so few past shows posted below.

The first Cedar Valley Memories Show took place in 1996. I visited during their first show that year. A friend of mine was working on the Case 110 and told me about the opening debut of this show. They had already built a small pioneer style craft village on their grounds to demostrate some of their machines and old world crafts including an Amish wagon wheel maker, blacksmith, wood carvers, and antique farming tools. One of the unique machines they had operating was a sock knitting machine. I had a friend that was operating one of their steam tractors, I think it was the Case 1913 110 HP Case tractor. It's been 26 years. it will be interesting to see how they have grown since then.

Steam tractor demonstrations include plowing, threshing, sawmilling. Draft horses plowing plowing demonstration and wagon rides. Their collection of steam tractors includes 5 very rare finds. A Reeves 40-140 Hp cross compound steam tractor, a 1922 32 Hp Advance-Rumley steam engine, a 1913 110 Hp case steam tractor, A 1910 Phoenix used in Canada as a logging tractor -this engine looks like a steam locomotive on caterpillar tracks, and a rare1878 Blumentritt two cylinder self propelled steam engine.

http://www.antiqueacres.org/

Steam power tractor show. Lots of steam power. Last time I was there in 2008 they were setting up their own sawmill. A draft horse shoeing job was being done all day long so people could watch the big horses getting shod the same way they did years ago. A flea market with old tools is part of this event as well.

The 60th Annual Old Thresher's Reunion was held here on September 2nd - September 6th, 2010. One of the largest steam power shows in Iowa. Includes one of the largest displays of restored steam tractors as well as restored steam locomotives and antique electric trains and railroad rolling stock. Large flea market and swap meet is located in the middle of the grounds and is a good place to buy steam power and antique engine stuff, old farm equipment, and some antique blacksmith tools and machinist tools. Additional flea market and sales buildings are located throughout the site. These folks also offer classes on steam power and traction engines.

Lots of things going on all year round at McMillan Park. See their website above for more calendar of events. See also the railroad website at www.mcrr.org

Located right on Interstate 80 just east of exit 117. When driving west from Des Moines Iowa, Hawkeye Antique Acres can be seen just before passing exit 117. Big tractor mounted high in the air was still there next to the interstate until around 2022.

The main driving force behind the engine show at this location was a man named George Archer. He was born in 1931. By 2012 George would have been around 81 years old. The Hawkeye Antique Acres location was a beautiful permanent site that I think might have been owned by George. What happened to the large steam powered saw mill and the large stationary engines, I don't know. Sometime after 2012 the Central Hawkeye Antique Gas Engine and Tractor Shows stopped having shows here. They still have a Facebook page, but this is not very active. See their facebook page at Central Hawkeye Gas Engine And Tractor Association. George Archer died in February 2020. It is very, very difficult to find locations to host shows like this anymore.

The main engine show took place during July, featuring with working displays and exhibits of antique gasoline and oil engines and tractors and some steam engines and tractors, a large working steam powered sawmill. Live demonstrations of antique tractors plowing and disking fields. Large stationary engined displays. Antique cars displays. A small flea market similar to the May swap meet takes place at each show also which is a source of antique engines and parts. One could also find antique blacksmiths tooling such as anvils, forges, hammers, leg vises, post drills, used taper shank drill bits, used drill parts, and other antiques and collectables.

Steam Power & Antique Engine Shows

2022

26th Annual Cedar Valley Memories - Osage, Iowa - August 13-14, 2022

57th Annual Old Time Power Show, Cedar Falls, Iowa﻿ - Friday, Saturday, & Sunday August 19, 20, 21 - 2022 http://www.antiqueacres.org/

http://www.antiqueacres.org/

57th Annual Old Time Power Show, Cedar Falls, Iowa - Friday, Saturday, & Sunday
August 19, 20, 21 - 2022
http://www.antiqueacres.org/