The Platte County Steam and Gas Engine Club has been an important part of the local community for decades. Last year’s Steam Engine Show celebrated 60 years. Two-year member, Ken Hansen, and other members of the organization recently decided that since they are an aging group, they needed new blood.
Ken Hansen’s friends from Austin, Texas, visited recently and one of their daughters got her first ride on a tractor with Hansen at her side.
“It was decided by the group that we should try to get more youth involved in our work,” Hansen said. “I came up with the current plan and am running it this year.”
Letters have been sent to agriculture teachers in local schools, and the FFA and FHA chapters. The letters explain how the club’s goal is to pass the knowledge of the steam era and 20th Century farming down to the younger generation.
“We are asking young folks who are interested in past farming practices to help out with our Steam and Tractor show, Aug. 11-12,” Hansen said. “In exchange for their two days of help, they will receive a year’s membership in our club and a certificate allowing them to go on our tractor ride next year without having to pay the normal ride fee of $35.”
Those who want to apply for the program must be 16 years of age to ride without an adult. Since a parent’s or guardian’s signature is required for young people to take part in the program, applications by email cannot be accepted. Each student will be assigned to work with an adult when working around machinery and students will never be working unsupervised.
While the club’s members aren’t sure what the response to the new program will be, and how much they can teach to young people in just two days of the show, they are excited to introduce this learning experience.
“I could not attend last year’s show, so at age 72, this will be my first experience with steam-powered farm work,” Hansen said. “There were only a couple of farmers still threshing when I grew up and I never got to see it close up. Is all this knowledge necessary for would-be farmers? It seems the most successful folks in most walks of life know where they have been, so they can more clearly see where they are going. There is a reason they teach history in school.”
Since each apprentice will be working with an adult, the club will have to limit the number of people they accept this year.
Applicants have a choice of which area they would like to work in, but if the response is great, applicants might not get their first choice of where they work. The choices are: baling, rock crushing, corn shelling, threshing wheat, hammer-mill (feed grinding) and steam engine operation.
Those wishing to participate are asked to number their choices they would like to help with, or learn about, from 1 to 6 in order of what they would most like to take part in, with 1 being their first choice and 6, the last.
The deadline for entry is midnight, July 31, 2023.
“Those who wish to participate will work alongside experienced farmers who will demonstrate how things were done in the ‘good old days,’” Hansen said.
There will also be an old fashioned for-fun tractor pull Aug. 12, and any members are welcome to be part of the hop on/off sled as it pulls down the track. There will also be a pickup of wheat bundles in early August.
Any young person can email Ken Hansen at ken51hansen@yahoo.com for an application.
Forms should be sent to Ken Hansen, 4320 Martin Rd., Smithville, Mo. 64089, by July 31.