By ANN ALLEN
Indiana Correspondent

ROCHESTER, Ind. — Antique tractor owners are gearing up for this year’s Fulton County Historical Power Show, June 15-17 at the Fulton County Historical Society grounds, four miles north of Rochester on U.S. Highway 31.

The three-day event will feature exhibits of John Deere, International Harvester, Farmall, Allis-Chalmers, Ford, Case, Massey-Harris, Oliver, Cockshutt and McCormick-Deering tractors, lawn tractors, hit-n-miss engines, farm equipment and antique trucks, with a special emphasis on Minneapolis-Moline, a line of tractors manufactured from 1929-1963.

The show will host the Prairie Gold Summer Convention, featuring the Star Series and Garden Tractor, and Minneapolis-Moline and Jacobson. Numbered models of MM U Diesel 1/16th-scale tractors, MM UTB LP gas 1/16th-scale tractors and MM 445 Powerline 1/16th-scale tractors will be auctioned as collector’s items.

Daily demonstrations include a 1915 sawmill, corn grinding, threshing and hay balers. Also on tap: a pedal tractor pull, antique light- and heavyweight pulls, blind driver races and games for the kids.

Craig Welding, Mentone, will be the featured business, with an exhibit tent in center field.

Show hours are from 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m.-3 p.m., or whenever the tractor pull ends. Admission is $5 for adults (ages 12 and older) and free for children 11 and younger. Weekend passes are available for $10 per person. Parking and tram rides are free. Golf cart rentals are available on the grounds, which are handicapped-accessible.

Food vendors will provide sandwiches, onion rings, kettle corn, ice cream, elephant ears, cotton candy and the like. The museum will serve a breakfast buffet starting at 7 a.m. each day.

People interested in joining the 140-member Fulton County Historical Association may do so by sending $15 dues to the association at: c/o FCHS, 37 E 375 No., Rochester, IN 46975. The association, a branch of the Fulton County Historical Society, meets at 7 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month at the FCHS museum.

Anyone wishing to exhibit at the power show can contact the association at the above address or contact Melinda Clinger, secretary, at 574-223-4436 or by e-mail at Melinda@rtcol.com

The society’s website is www.icss.net~fchs