Old draws out new

Tired Iron of the Ozarks fall show brought out record numbers to see how it was done

R.J. Barnica, 12, takes a lesson from master blacksmith Dale Custer in the blacksmith shop at the Tired Iron of the Ozarks show grounds on Saturday.
R.J. Barnica, 12, takes a lesson from master blacksmith Dale Custer in the blacksmith shop at the Tired Iron of the Ozarks show grounds on Saturday.

— Teaching a new generation how things were done in generations past is what the Tired Iron of the Ozarks antique engine and tractor club is all about.

Club members seek to preserve pieces of the past in the form of old tractors, engines, farm equipment and tools and illustrate to a generation used to computers and automation how their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents used to farm the land, make their tools and accomplish everyday tasks.

Last weekend’s fall show was in line with the club’s purpose, with members and guests displaying old tractors, engines and a wide variety of tools and equipment and offering live demonstrations throughout the three-day show which began Friday.

Visitors were treated not only to rows of old tractors and engines, but to demonstrations of an old thrashing machine, to saw mills in action and to tool making inside the club’s blacksmith shop.

And crowds were even larger than they have been in years past, with the parking area often full.

School children visited from Ozark Adventist Elementary School and from the Siloam Springs FFA Club.

Saturday’s blacksmithing demonstrations brought many to the show, as members of the Blacksmiths’ Organization of Arkansas made tools and utensils by heating iron in the forge and pounding the hot metal into the desired form on the anvil.

Of special interest to many visitors was a recently restored Shubert sprout mower, a kind of brush-hog device, patented in 1912, with chains and steel weights hanging down from a shaft. As the wheel turns, a separate chain drives the shaft and the chains and weights flail the brush. The device was called an “iron goat.”

Glenn Smith, the club’s president, remembered seeing the device in the Robinson Community when he was 16 and recently went back and found it was still there some 50 years later.

Kenyon Wright of the Robinson community donated the mower to Tired Iron. Wright recalled seeing two men use it to brush hog government property, Smith said. Wright’s uncle later bought it, and Wright then obtained it from his uncle, trading a calf for the mower.

Club members recovered the old implement and restored it as a club project.

All of the parts are completely original, Smith said.

Club members divided the pieces and took them home and painted them, before returning them and reassembling the machine.

“This is a very rare piece to have. We are very fortunate to have it,” said club member Johnny Burger.

The Tired Iron of the Ozarks weekend show was its 19th annual fall show.

It was held Friday through Sunday at the club’s show grounds, located on Taylor Orchard Road in Gentry.

"The show was the biggest ever," Smith said.

News, Pages 1 on 09/15/2010