A fun trip to the past

Yorktonites can expect antique tractors, flour grinding, and the history of women in farming at the Western Development Museum this weekend.

The 62nd Threshermen’s Show and Seniors’ Festival takes place over August 5 and 6. It will feature decades-old tractors, tools, and vehicles.

The main theme of the show is Women in Agriculture, which highlights the contributions women made to farming life in the prairies from pioneer days to our modern age.

“Each year we pick a  different theme that we think will be of interest to our guests,” says Carla Madsen, acting manager at the museum.  “This one was a general interest that people wanted to see.”

The themes for the festivals vary from year to year, celebrating everything from the international year of pulses to the 50th anniversary of Barbie.

The museum has been fine tuning the tractors for the last week, getting them ready to pull boxes and race across fields. Many of the tractors are only operational once a year.

There will be demonstrations of ice cream making, sooking, blacksmithing, bread baking, and grain grinding.

The plowing demonstration will involve cutting down a section of crops on Saturday and plowing the land on Sunday.

“People like seeing how things were done back in the pioneer days, especially with the threshing and the sawmill,” says Madsen.

Daily admission costs $12 for adults, $10 for students and seniors, and $25 for families. Children under 12 get in for free.

Weekend passes cost $22 for adults, $18 for adults and seniors, and $45 for families.