MENNO POWER SHOW: HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
For the 39th time in as many years, Menno’s big Pioneer Power Show brings the past to life through like-minded volunteers and a work ethic not unlike their forebearers
You’ve got to believe that the forefathers — those pioneers who settled the land and made a new way for themselves all those decades ago — would be proud. With agriculture as their foundation and fortitude their strength, the men and women who built a new life on the Dakota Territory frontier did so with what they had. That meant resourceful resilience, creativity, adaptation and a willingness to try new things along the way.
That degree of innovation and stick-to-itiveness is not lost on those behind the Menno Pioneer Power Show. In fact, that’s what prompted organizers to launch the annual celebration of the past 39 years ago, when grain threshing was front and center at the inaugural event held at the Menno City Park in 1987.
And that’s what was on full display once again last Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 20 and 21, as the Menno Pioneer Heritage Assocaitoin hosted dozens of exhibitors and several thousand volunteers and guests who gathered on Pioneer Acres on the northern edge of Menno for one of the biggest shows of its kind around.
They shelled corn. They pressed hay. They threshed wheat. They sawed lumber. They plowed — all using the power of steam and equipment that would be long forgotten were it not for preservation efforts like the Pioner Power Show.
“It’s the best local show we’ve got around,” said Kenny Kruse, who lives five miles north of Hartford, Neb. and has been attending for the past 30 years. This year, for the first time, he came to Menno with his Perkins old-style shingle mill patented in 1880, a heavy machine with a fierce blade he used to cut white cedar into wooden shingles, one at a time.
“It does a good job, but it’s not high production,” said Kruse, who also brought some engines and a few tractors to the show and who was expecting his children and grandchildren to show up later. “It’s kind of like a family reunion; we’ve got the camper here and we’ll grill later …”
Family — now that’s where the real power is. There’s something for everybody at the Power Show, which is why you see as many energetic youngsters as you do careful exhibitors and inquisitive onlookers. You see them in the barrel train, on the ferris wheel or riding the carousel. There’s kettle corn and root beer floats, wooden train whistles to blow and putt-putt golf to conquer, all available for free to go along with the free admission — with a paying adult, that is.
Elsewhere on the sprawling grounds of Pioneer Acres — the 36-acre spot where the Power Show has been held since 1997 — action was packed. But not all of it was as big and powerful as Kruse’s shingle mill, or the huge Minneapolis tractor used to power a 1922 threshing machine being used to turn wheat into a slow but steady harvest, or the 175-entry antique car and tractor show that made its way through Pioneer Acres’ Main Street both days of the show.
Inside the Holm Building, Denelta Patocka and others with the Scotland Quilt Guild were at work, inviting others to pick up the needle and try their hand, while Jan Schiferel and her band of three played songs like Louise Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” on a stage just across the way.
In the Women’s Building — an old Olivet harness shop that has been on the Pioneer Acre grounds since 1999 — “Touch of Blue” was this year’s theme, with various shades of blue cookware, blue jewelry, blue women’s hats and even a small, light blue New Testament and Psalms Proverbs — the kind handed out by Gideons International — were on display.
Church youth groups sold food across from one another, with Salem Reformed slinging burgers and dogs and Grace Lutheran featuring fleische kuechle. More food was available inside the Big Red Barn, where volunteers staffed the Menno Pioneer Heritage Association stand and, on Sunday, the Menno Community Club served pancakes and sausage — a tradition nearly as old as the Power Show itself.
And if all that wasn’t enough, vendors were there selling all sorts of things, turning the living museum into a place where commerce was alive and well — something else the forebearers would appreciate. After all, the sale of goods is what turned what were long ago nothing more than agricultural settlements into towns.
Yes, the ancestors would be proud, and would also no doubt approve of a poem on display near a line of small steam engines powering a corn grinder, a water pump and a Dexter washing machine from 1923. It comes from the Early Day Engine Club of Sandwich, Ill., a decent-sized city located in the northern part of the state known for its rich manufacturing history.
It reads:
What’s that contraption over there you say.
The source of power from Grandpa’s day.
Putt, putt, pop, if they could only speak,
They’d tell a tale that’s quite unique.
One lungers we’ve heard them proudly called,
They did the work before electricity was installed.
Pumping water and baling hay,
Washing was on laundry day.
Mixing mixes and grinding feed.
These engines took care of every need.
Two flywheels, piston and water hopper,
You could lug her down but you couldn’t stop her.
Belts and pulleys, hit and miss,
They send us back in nostalgic bliss.
From days gone by like phantoms return,
In rafts of smoke from the gas they burn.
The Economys, John Deeres, red, green, even blue,
McCormick, Sandwich; yes dear, Maytags, too.
Chanticleer, Monitor, to mention two more,
Water-cooled, air-cooled; they’re like a door,
Or a bridge if you like, to the days gone by,
Gone but still here like Mom’s apple pie.
Their fascination and splendor are things to behold,
These crazy contraptions from days of old.
But listen as — BANG — there goes one or two,
They’re beautiful sight, and their music is too.
But those days have left us, so the music you know,
Comes from the Early Day Engine Show.
The show takes us back to yesteryear,
With those shelters, pumpjackets and engines so dear.
So long live the engines and engine shows, too.
They’re part of our heritage, like the Red, White and Blue!
