POWER SHOW RETURNS TO MENNO THIS WEEKEND
Pioneer Acres, the rolling and picturesque grounds on the northern edge of Menno, was mostly quiet late Friday morning, Sept. 12.
The distant sound of a lawn mower could be heard, accounting for the smell of freshly cut grass, and several ladies were setting up in the Women’s Building for this year’s theme, “Touch of Blue.”
But there were indicators of the sounds and sights of what is to come, like the vintage Farmall, Minneapolis-Moline and Case tractors parked in a row, and the imposing 1916 Case 65 horsepower steamer manufactured by the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company of Racine, Wisconsin and owned by David and Bubbles Mensch.
After all, nothing says “Power Show” like power.
And so it will be that Menno’s biggest annual Saturday-Sunday to-do will be back for its 39th year this Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 20 and 21, when the Pioneer Power Show returns. The show opens at 9 a.m. on Saturday and will feature:
- Live demonstrations from 10:30 a.m. to noon and again from 2 to 3:30 p.m.;
- An antique car and tractor parade at noon;
- An antique tractor and pickup pull at 3 p.m.;
- A steam engine spark show at 8 p.m./dark.
Sunday morning begins with the longstanding pancake and sausage feed by the Menno Community Club inside The Big Red Barn starting at 7:30 a.m. and continuing through the noon hour.
The live demonstrations return from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. There will also be:
- A mini rod pull at noon;
- The Ladies Nail Driving Contest at 12:30 p.m.;
- The Bale Throwing Contest at 1:45 p.m.;
- The antique car and tractor parade at 3 p.m.
Activities for children, live music, food booths, a toy show and flea market will also be available on the sprawling grounds of Pioneer Acres, which serves as a living museum made possible by volunteers and like-minded folks.
“It’s the people,” said David Mensch, president of the Menno Pioneer Heritage Association and founder of the Power Show, when asked how the event continues to grow after all these years. “This year we’ve got probably 350 volunteers on the grounds and they’re all taking care of stuff. If they didn’t come, this show would be over. We could maybe have a meager show, but it would be far less than what we’ve got now.”
Indeed, what started in the Menno City Park in 1987 before transitioning to the grounds named “Pioneer Acres” in 1996 — shortly after the Menno Pioneer Heritage Association was founded — has grown into one of the most family-friendly events of its kind.
“All these shows are a little different,” says Mensch. “Our thing here is family — it’s always been family. That’s why, when you come to the gate with 10 grandchildren, you pay for you and Grandma, and those 10 kids get in for free. They come in for free, they’re riding the rides for free, and the only expense is the food, and that’s all inexpensive and local. That money never leaves Menno. It all stays here and works here.”
The Pioneer Power Show has evolved even outside of the venue change three decades ago through the development of infrastructure, and that continues to this day. Whether it’s through major additions like the carousel several years ago or through minor updates like a new front face of the log cabin and the wooden shingles on the south half of The Big Red Barn this year, “it gets a little more all the time,” Mensch says.
He hopes to have a permanent petting zoo in place in time for the 40th Power Show next year — “it will be new but we want it to look like it’s 120 years old” — and the Menno Pioneer Heritage Association continues to raise funds for a 100 x 60-foot museum to be built at Pioneer Acres.
“We are dead serious about that,” says Mensch, who notes that about $57,000 is on hand for the estimated $330,000 project. “We need an environmentally controlled building for all the artifacts that we’re getting that we can’t store in these cold buildings.”
Mensch expects the museum project is three years away.
For now, he and others are focusing on the weekend and all that is expected to take place in an effort “to teach the future about the past.”
