Tired Iron tractor show running in high gear
Posted on Sunday, September 7, 2008
GENTRY - The sputter of old engines, the buzz of the sawmills and the hammering of hot metal on the anvils can again be heard on the grounds of the Tired Iron of the Ozarks, southwest of Gentry.
The 17 th Annual Antique Engine and Tractor Show is in full swing at the club's show grounds on Taylor Orchard Road, and admission if free. Each year, new features are added and the numbers seem to grow.
The show was just getting started on Friday morning, and already there was much to see. Old tractors - many restored to pristine condition - lined the driveway of the show grounds. Old engines with large spinning flywheels sputtered and smoked. Two saw mills were in full operation, cutting logs into timbers and boards. A field was being turned with a single bottom plow. Metal was being heated red hot and hammered into shape to make tools and decorative artifacts. And the show grounds were filling with booths, showing engines old and new and displaying numerous antique tools and machines. And the show was just getting started - it continues all day Sunday.
The club holds the shows to inform and educate the general public about farm life in the early 20 th Century. And the shows give those who love to restore and work with old engines the chance to show them off and explain their purpose and function.
On Saturday, the Blacksmith Organization of Arkansas were there to demonstrate the blacksmith trade which was once a major part of every farming community.
A parade of power is set for noon each day of the show.
That's when the tractors are fired up and driven in a parade around the show grounds.
Tired Iron of the Ozarks, a club dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of antique engines and tractors, is located at 13344 Taylor Orchard Road, Gentry.
It is four miles southwest of Gentry and four miles north of Siloam Springs.
The show grounds belong to the club and consist of 17 acres.
On the show grounds are a 1907 log cabin which is being restored, a blacksmith shop, a clubhouse, a sawmill, a large pavilion, an antique exhibit building and a recreational vehicle park with over 30 spaces.
In addition to their two annual shows, the members of Tired Iron of the Ozarks participate in a number of civic functions, such as parades, farm shows, automobile shows, boat shows, county fairs, tractor pulls and other festivals throughout northwest Arkansas, northeast Oklahoma, southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri.
Members generously, and at their own expense, display and demonstrate their personallyowned tractors and engines.
Tired Iron of the Ozarks was organized in May of 1992 with approximately 30 members meeting at the Highfill Community Center in Highfill.
The club has grown to approximately 170 members.
Tired Iron of the Ozarks is a nonprofit educational and historical organization dedicated to the promotion of the collection, restoration, preservation and exhibition of gasoline and antique engines, tractors, power-driven machines and other equipment of historical value.
For more information, call the club's president, John Burger, at 736-5800.
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